The Weapon
by Chinangel
Summary: Severely injured in the fight with Herb, Saotome Ranma is forced into a horrible situation. Now she doesn't care if she's a girl for the rest of her life. She just wishes she was human too....
1. Countdown to Disaster

**Chinangel's Rant:** Alright, if you think that "The Sound of Thunder" has dark overtones, wait until you see what my twisted mind has spat out THIS time. Once again, it's an Onna Ranma fanfic, meaning that Ranma will be turning into a girl forever, this time however it is not by choice.

I should point out that I am a hairstylist, NOT a Doctor. What this means is that my knowledge of medical practices and the inner workings of the human body is very limited, as is my knowledge of robotics and artificial intelligence. Therefore, suspend disbelief, and my sincerest apologies to anyone with any specific knowledge in these fields.

All this being said: if you can look past this, then you may have fun, if not...well then perhaps this isn't the story for you.

**Mosh Shrieken's****Rant: **Hello and welcome to the Sanity Corner. I'm here to keep the original author, Chinangel /\ up there, from going insane \/ down there. I'm also gonna help her out with some of the fighting, tech, and medical stuff.

That being said, The main reason we work together so well is that we are very alike. So, this will have everything that she has promised, with a few of my own additives. Look for more comedy, often at the absolute most inappropriate times.

Now, ON WITH THE SHOW!!!!

**Suggested Listening Music: **Angels by Within Temptation

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"Preliminary audio report, Echo Squad. Rei Mitsuhito reporting. Have located candidate eight.Name: Saotome Ranma, age sixteen; Gender: Male and Female. Saotome changes gender with application of different temperature water, warm for male, cold for female. Birth gender is currently unknown.

Candidate appears to be in exceptional physical health, and has extensive knowledge of unarmed Martial Arts.Candidate appears to have a number of rivals in the area, and all appear to practice various forms of Martial Arts.

Continued observation of candidate is recommended. Suggest also extended observation of family. Will advise as needed."

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"Audio report number seven, Echo Squad. Rei Mitsuhito reporting. Have made contact with one member of candidate eight's extended family: Tendo Nabiki, and have purchased a series of pictures of candidate eight, which are included in folder. She appears to hold little concern for candidate eight's welfare, and thus squad leader suggests utilizing her as a source of information concerning candidate eight.

Squad will continue to observe and advise as needed."

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"Audio report number nine, Echo Squad. Rei Mitsuhito reporting. Have observed a probable candidate. Name of Hibiki Ryouga, estimated age, sixteen. Hibiki seems to hold severe hostility towards candidate eight, bearing some kind of personal grudge. Hibiki possesses great amounts of strength, much more than should be possible for any human, but also has no sense of direction. Hibiki appears unable to follow the most basic of directions and gets lost far too easily. If this was corrected, then he may be a valuable asset. If it is not, he could be a hindrance.

Squad will continue to observe and advise as needed."

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"Audio report number thirteen, Echo Squad. Rei Mitsuhito reporting. Other Martial Artists of Nerima, while exceptional are unsuited to the program.

Kuno Tatewaki and Kuno Kodachi suffer from extreme psychosis, and have rather mundane skills compared to the others. There are two elderly martial artists and while both seem to be the most powerful of all the Martial Artists, candidate eight included, neither would survive the process. Two gaijins, one named Shampoo, who relies on weapons, and another one named Mousse, who is all but blind and hevily relies on weapons. Both with little skill in unarmed combat.

There is also Kuonji Ukyo who also relies on a very unusual weapon that would be hard to duplicate.

All in all, the only other possible candidate would be Hibiki Ryouga, who has gone missing once again.

Squad will continue to observe and advise as needed."

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"Audio report number eighteen, Echo Squad. Rei Mitsuhito reporting. Candidate has been attacked by a Chinese Prince and his two vassals. The Prince is named Herb and apparently suffers from the same curse as candidate eight. However, the Prince somehow managed to seal himself in the cursed form and for some reason came looking for candidate eight. Candidate eight's curse is now locked too and she has left to pursue the Prince. Candidate eight also took two allies to help deal with the Prince's vassals.

Squad will pursue and continue to observe and advise as needed."

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"Dammit! We just lost visual of the target!"

"How? What happened?"

"The Mountain exploded! Likely some kind of massive ki maneuver."

"Retrieve the target immediately! Provide emergency medical assistance and await evac! We can't afford to lose her!"

"Yes sir."

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**The Weapon**

**A Ranma 1/2 fanfic by**

**Dianna "chinangel" Machen **

**And Mosh Shrieken**

Ranma flipped away from another blast from Herb, and and countered with one of her own. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Lime go flying and crash into a wall, Ryouga close behind. She smirked to herself. Good ol' Ryouga: it was impossible to keep that stubborn fighter down; he would just get up twice as mad and three times as determined to beat you down.

Ranma of course always found a way of defeating the wandering boy, but not many that didn't involve getting him lost again.

Though, to be fair, Ryouga did that part well enough on his own.

Another explosion sprayed stony shrapnel, and a piece hit Ranma in the forehead, sending her into an undignified spin. She got up and cursed herself for getting distracted, and she refocused on the dragon-man hovering above her.

"Damn!" she growled as she spulled herself up, "I can't beat him punch-for-punch, he's jus' got too much ki." She grumbled as her analytical mind began to work in overdrive, "An' he can fire those double blasts...," her eyes suddenly lit up. "Wait! Fire! The Hiryu Shoten Ha!" A smile that many of Nerima's Martial Artists would recognize graced her features.

She jumped to her feet.

"Oi! Nice Shot!" She laughed heartily, before folding her hands casually behind her head. Herb looks (looked) at her, confusion starting to muddle his smug features. Uncertain of what to do he charged a smaller blast and launched it experimentally at her.

She casually evaded the energy attack, her smile not faltering in the slightest as the ground exploded behind her.

"Oops, ya missed." she teased her opponent childishly, and blew him a raspberry. Herb frowned and launched another ball of ki. But she ducked, and took her shoe off as the blast passed over her head, and put another crater into the mountain.

"Darn rocks," she loudly grumbled "always gettin' in my shoes." she slipped it back on, and gave Herb a winning smile, "But not a lot we can do about it, ne?"

It then Dawned on Herb.

"Y-you're...you're IGNORING me?!" he demanded angrily, as he started to shake. She looked innocently at him, her features brimming with (false) concern.

"Well no," she explained, "I jus' don't want the Musk Princess to hurt herself." Prince Herb's eyes widened and he shrieked in rage and flew at the red-head, who calmly hopped to the side, letting Herb plow head-first into the ground.

"Oh gee, that hurt. Ya want me ta getcha Mommy?" she asked with worry. Herb tore himself out of the ground and with another howl, launched himself at the girl, his arms and legs flailing uncoordinatedly. Ranma had her hands clasped behind her back, and a schoolgirl giggle escaped her smiling lips as she hopped, ducked and bounced just out of his way. Lightly commenting or berating the Musk Prince.

"Oi, come on Princess, girls shouldn't fight," she taunted Herb while dodging a punch.  
"Please stop Princess, you're embarrassin' the Amazons. Oops! I meant Musk." she continued as she hopped away from a kick.

"I...I'LL KILL YOU!!!!" he roared and prepared another blast.

Neither of them saw the incoming kettle.

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Ryouga bounced away from another one of Lime's kicks, and countered with one of his own canon-like punches. Lime was fast, but Ryouga was very experienced in battle combatants that outstripped him in speed, and had aimed higher than normal to compensate for the impending jump. Of course, Lime did try and jump out of the way, and ended up folding around Ryouga's stone-shattering fist.

It was pure luck on Lime's part that he caught the fist in the stomach as opposed to his chest, and was simply fired back into a stone wall. It hurt, but not as much as broken ribs would have.

He peeled himself out of the wall and collapsed down in a pool of warm water, gasping as he tried to get his breath back.

Ryouga on the other hand stared hard, not at Lime but rather at the object NEXT to Lime, the Kaisuifu?. The kettle...

The object they had come all the way from Japan to find.

"I could destroy it now," he thought, "and Ranma would never be able to marry Akane, and I would have my revenge! I would have beaten Saotome! Then...Then I'd..." the more rational part of his mind sobered, "I'd never be able to repay Saotome for saving me from Herb's damn ladle." His features hardened. He didn't like it, but he did owe a debt to Ranma.

"DAAAMNNIIITTT!" he roared and charged the just-starting-to-stand Lime. The Musk warrior raised his hands in defense, but instead of a punch, Ryouga grabbed him with both hands, and threw him over his shoulder. Hard. Lime went flying off towards another large rock and Lime whimpered before slamming face-first into the stone (which cracked in a spider-web pattern) and sliding down the wall.

Ryouga on the other hand, had grabbed the kettle and filled it with water, then he turned and with a shout of: "YOU OWE ME RANMA!" launched the kettle at quarter strength (which was still twice that of an average person) towards the pig-tailed girl.

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The kettle landed with a heavy metallic sound on Herb's head, and he froze. Ranma did too, and in spite of herself began to shake, then snicker, then, she began to roll on the ground laughing. Herb stared, the slightly crumpled kettle on his head, and water trickling down across his face in a most undignified way.

His face turned purple as his enemy howled in laughter at him.

How dare she...how...dare...she! That little...that...he...

The sudden ki spike was the only warning any of them had before the mountain-top erupted in a field of rage-powered ki blast.

Not all that far away, a team began to scramble.

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"Damnit! We just lost visual of the subject!" a moment of silence followed as the speaker listened to orders coming out of the radio set in her hands,  
"The Mountain has exploded, likely some kind of massive ki maneuver." Again more silence.

"Yes sir," she confirmed and reattached the com to her hip before turning to her team. They were all clad in special-ops black, and had been watching the engagement from farther down the mountain side.

"Right," she said, "we are to locate and retrieve the subject from the mountain top, stabilize her if need be, and then wait for extraction. Move!"

The five man cell quickly began to move up the mountain, seemingly oblivious to the falling debris, heading towards the newly crafted plateau, and hoping that they hadn't allowed their target to be killed.

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Ranma slowly regained consciousness, and immediately whished he hadn't. Or rather, she hadn't. Ranma-chan sighs, staring down at her naked body, noting the various injuries. _Gonna lose both my legs. Wonder where my arm went. Oh, there it is._ She looked to the right, seeing most of her left arm lying next to a destroyed kettle. Recognition slowly settled in, and she realized that it was the Kaisuifu, the one thing that could restore her manhood. As the emotional loss pulled her towards unconsciousness, she barely saw someone in black approaching her.

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Ranma-chan slowly awoke; aware that time had passed, but not how much. Oddly enough, something kept her detached from her body, as she could see what had happened, but not feel anything or particularly care about it.

She glanced almost unwillingly downward, and saw, past her large breasts (completely uninjured too. How ironic.) that her stomach was severely injured, and (that) there was a broken rib sticking out of her chest.

The rock that had been crushing her lower body was gone now, and she could see what was left of her legs. She imagined that if she didn't have this curious disinterest, she might vomit. Both legs were completely pulverized, little chips of bone and shredded muscles showing through her skin.

Sheglanced to the right, seeing her right forearm still under a large rock, but there were several pairs of black gloved hands on it, apparently trying to shift it off her. She heard movement to the left, and saw another black-clothed person bandaging up her stump where her left arm once was.

Ranma-chan looked up at the person, and realized that she was female. An ingrained response from living with Akane, who would mallet him from being within ten feet of any woman younger than Cologne, caused him to squirm slightly in an attempt to get away. The woman bandaging him noticed this, and immediately poked Ranma-chan with a syringe. Ranma's struggles got weaker, as she drifted into inky blackness of unconsciousness.

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Rei Mitsuhito was very worried. This was supposed to be a simple recon run, but instead her team was forced to provide emergency first aid and get immediate extraction of a severely wounded young girl. She grimaced, though, at the thought of what would happen to her and her team if anything were to befall this particular girl.

Rei's attention was drawn back to her unconscious patient as she finished bandaging the ruined stump of an arm. She shuddered unconsciously at what she had to do next. Slowly, unwillingly, she grabbed the pulped left leg of Ranma, and ripped it off. It was no big feat, seeing as how the leg was almost liquid, but the idea was just distasteful to her. She quickly disregarded her own sensibilities and repeated the procedure with Ranma's right leg.

Rei checked the status of the rest of her team, noting that the rock was off of Ranma's other arm, and one of her team was bandaging what could be saved and was not pulped, like her legs had been. One other person was gently pushing the exposed rib back inside Ranma and rearranging the fractured and broken ribs back into approximately the right places.

She shuddered again, and started wrapping up Ranma's leg, shifting slightly as one of her operatives kneeled next to her and bandaged the other leg. She looked over to the one agent not clustered around Ranma and asked "How soon till extraction?"

"Five minutes ma'am!" came the reply, and Rei snarled back "Tell them they've got three. Any later and we'll lose her." She worriedly turned back to Ranma-chan, finishing bandaging her leg and moving to help close the young neo-girl's chest.

Rei carefully supported Ranma, as one of her agents bandaged her torso. Rei was thankful that Ranma's spine was intact, as a broken or even fractured spine would have made things very difficult. _Not like we couldn't work around it,_ she thought as she lifted Ranma up a bit higher, _but it would have made things harder._

As the agent, who she didn't have the time to identify as they all looked almost identical, finished wrapping Ranma up, she heard the thumping roar of the helicopter. Rei looked up, and spotted the futuristic looking aircraft as it started to land. She gesturded to the agents, and hurried to confer with the pilot.

Two medics jumped out of the side hatch, carrying a stasis pod. The stasis pods were simple, man sized containers that could keep someone's condition from worsening. Rei didn't know exactly how they worked, but she knew enough. Someone properly hooked up to the pod would stay alive for at least an hour. After that, though, the person's injuries would resume(,) either improving (not likely) or deteriorating (extremely likely).

Rei stood by, feeling helpless, as the Meds hooked Ranma into the pod, and hauled it back to the 'copter. She would accompany them, but most of her team would stay behind for cleanup. She crouched next to the secured pod in the bay area of the specially modified medi-copter as it took off. Once high enough, the special jet engines would activate, propelling the transport at speeds not reached by normal helicopters.

She looked down at the bruised and burned face, and felt a tiny pang of guilt for taking this child from her family and friends.

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The very same friends were just awakening from the massive blast unleashed by an enraged Herb. Ryouga was first to awaken, groaning quietly as he attempted, and failed, to sit up. He looked around from his prone position, searching for Ranma, unsure if his throw had reached her. _Him_, his mind firmly reminded, _Ranma is a guy, no matter what she, HE looks like._

"Right, now... where the hell am I?" The wandering boy grumbled and forced himself into a kneeling position. He looked about, while recalling what had happened: throwing the Kaisuifu, returning to Lime to beat him around for being a pain in the ass, and then light, and pain. Wait,…pain?

He looked down and sure enough, he had not escaped unscathed. His body was covered in burns and scrapes and he frowned. He knew he was not easy to hurt, the Bakusai Tenketsu training saw to that. He could soak up the most brutal of punches and kicks, ignore a majority of so-called secret techniques and ultimate attacks. So whatever hit him had to have been staggering, earth shaking.

Dammit! Why did Ranma always… wait! Ranma!

Adrenaline hit his system, allowing him to struggle upwards, perch on a nearby rock, and take in the view, and his heart sank. He was not in China, that much was certain. His heart was heavy as he stared at the billboard advertising soap.

Written in English.

Ryouga hung his head in frustration and anger, then looked towards the sky.

"God," he demanded, "Why do you hate me?"

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The Facility, as it was called was a humongous place. It was the kind of place conspiracy nuts whisper and hiss about, unnamed and officially nonexistent. Deep in a disclosed Japanese location, the labs and offices tinkered away, competing with the Americans to create better guns and more dangerous bombs.

They poked and prodded unknown technology, uncertain if they had a Martian death-ray, or a super-advanced toilet. The experiments performed were laughable and at first glance appeared to be the kind of thing out of a poorly written comic book or b-class movie. But closer inspection revealed dedicated individuals, working with determined proficiency.

Right then, a man ran at break-neck speed down a cold, metallic hall. He was an overweight gaijin, who's belly jiggled joyfully with every step he took. Though he wasn't actually overweight, he worked out, ate well, and followed a nutrition plan. His family just had a pre-disposition to weight problems. All in all, he was a nice guy in his mid thirties.

Pity the nice guy would never get very far in this line of work. He was a nice guy, and never ruthless. Poor bastard.

He pulled to a stop near one of the many metallic doors that dotted the length of the hall and fumbled in his lab-coat pockets. Pens and loose change clattered noisily against the floor, and people stopped to stare at the large gaijin, though he ignored them as he searched his pockets frantically.

Eventually, he produced a small thin plastic card, not much bigger than a playing card and he swiped it through the card reader blocking his progress. The red light on the reader flickered several times before reluctantly changing to green and the man shoved his way into the room after the lock clicked open.

"Doctor Karasu!" he bellowed in English and looked around, "Doctor Karasu!!"

The Lab was messy, horribly so. Post-it notes covered the walls and computers, various odd instruments littered the shelves and tables. In the center of the chaos, a startled Japanese woman with oddly golden eyes looked up at the fat gaijin.

"Edward!" she responded in unaccented English, "What's wrong?" the man huffed hard as he wound his way through the labyrinth that is Doctor Miyuki Karasu's personal lab. Though it looked more like a cross between a machine shop and a surgery. Various motors and engines were stacked next to human busts. Things that could have been guns were next to notes on human physiology and even a full working set of missile launchers lay attached to a human skeleton.

"One of your candidates is on the way here!" he explained though his eyes held a touch of curiosity as he looked at her. Miyuki blinked in confusion.

"What? I didn't 'okay' any candidates. I'm still going over their profiles." Edward shrugged.

"I'm just the messenger. They are on their way now, and she is in a bad way. Potentially fatal wounds." Miyuki frowned angrily.

"Which candidate is it?"

"Eight."

"Eight...eight..." her eyes widened, "Wait, the kid!?" she all but screamed. Edward nodded.

"Yeah, the Martial Artist." Karasu's eyes were completely unreadable, but her tone, if not her words, betrayed her thoughts.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!" she roared and grabbed her forehead as if nursing a headache.

"Doctor Karasu?" Edward asked in an agitated voice, "What about the candidate? She's suffering from severe wounds. She'll be dead within the hour."

Doctor Miyuki Karasu stared at one of the busts, then she turned back and stared grimly at Edward.

"Once again, the choice is made for me," she grumbled bitterly, "Have the O.R prepped and get me her Team on the radio. I need to know what I'm dealing with."

Edward nodded and sprinted from the room.

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"We have the Doctor on the horn!" Came the cry from one of Rei's black-suited subordinates. the brunette nodded and grabbed for the headset.

"With whom am I speaking." Came an all too calm and detached female voice.

"Rei Mitsuhito, Squad leader Ma'am." Rei grit her teeth as she answered. Gods she hated these damn lab jockeys, they treated every situation like it was a test to be analyzed.

"Alright, Miss Squad Leader, what are the candidate's injuries?" fighting the urge to punch something, or someone, Rei made her way back to the stasis pod and looked through the clear glass view-window.

"Ummm...missing both legs, missing one arm at the shoulder and the other at the elbow. Multiple rib fractures, possible concussion, internal injuries, to put it bluntly ma'am: she's a mess."

There was a brief pause, and she thought she heard what sounded like a groan of frustration on the other side, but then the cold, almost bored voice came back.

"Very well, bring her to the twenty-second level, Operating Room fourteen. My team will take care of the rest."

"Yes Ma'am." she returned smartly, and she heard the head-set click off. Then she removed hers, moved. to the back of the helicopter, and punched the door. Her hand hurt. A lot. Now she was angry at the disinterested Doctor, the door, her hand, and herself. Why did men do that!? Why did SHE do that!?

"Damn." she cursed and turned to her team who were looking at her with mixed amusement and confusion.

"We have to take the candidate to the twenty-second level, and O.R fourteen. There the Doctor's medical team will take over." The other team members nodded.

"Yo! E.T.A: thirty seconds!" the pilot called from the cockpit. The team grabbed the redhead's pod and moved into position near the doors.

"Hit the ground running!" Rei called over her shoulder and the helicopter began to descend into a towering, snow-capped mountain.

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In the pod Ranma groaned and shifted, moving her severed limbs slightly, she then drifted back to sleep. A lifetime away, Kasumi Tendo felt a chill pass through her, and she looked towards the horizon.

"Ranma." she whispered in fear. Something bad had happened. She knew it. She just knew it. She was afraid that the pig-tailed Martial Artist's luck had just run out.

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"She has ten minutes left, move!" Rei snapped over her shoulder as the team bolted as quickly as they dared down the halls. Doctors and scientists in their pristine white lab coats dodged out of the way as the special-ops team charged down the hall.

"The damn pod wasn't fully charged!" she hissed angrily, and swore to shoot the person in charge of the pods. They shouldn't have had to rush like this, they risked aggravating the candidate's injuries and the candidate could not take much more of this abuse goddamnitt! If she died it was Rei's ass out on the line! The desperate Echo Squad leader cursed as she saw a particularly slow gaggle of the lab techies ahead of her, instead of moving they stood around and stared, with stupefied expressions.

She yanked her side-arm and began to wave it in the air.

"MOVE! MOVE GODDAMNITT! MOVE!" she yelled in her accented English. The techies didn't react to her words so much as they did to her gun, and leapt out of the way.

She looked at the different doors. each one had a digital number on their displays indicating which room it was.

"Fourteen...fourteen...fourteen...wait here, HERE!" she called and hit the door with her shoulder. The swinging doors flew apart as the team shot in, pushing the pod ahead of them.

There the golden eyed Doctor waited, her eyes completely blank. But her medical team was much easier to read: fear, anxiety and the rush of adrenaline pumping through them.

"Her pod wasn't charged, she has nine minutes of life-support left." Rei stated sharply. the Doctor looked at the pod as it was transferred to her team.

"I see...," she looked back at Rei, "Miss Squad leader. Find who was in charge of that pod and shoot them. Then, drag them outside and shoot them again." Rei felt her respect for the Doctor begrudgingly rise.

"Yes Ma'am." she turned and snapped her fingers at her team and they hit the exit doors, and as they did so, Rei thumbed the safety of her weapon off and pulled the slide back. This was one order she fully intended on following through with.

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In the Operating Room, Doctor Miyuki Karasu looked sadly at the girl as she was removed from the pod and her team swarmed over her, hooking up life-support machines to aid her failing organs and to relieve the stress on her poor heart. Then they began to remove the bandages. Meanwhile, another member of her team wheeled in a trolley.

The trolley had arms and legs on it. Arms and legs that though flesh coloured, were not skin and tissue, but alloy and circuitry. She shook her head miserably.

"Forgive me now," She whipered to the prone red-haired girl, "For tomorrow I shall not deserve it." Then she joined her team in unwrapping the girl's bandages, and destroying her future.

**End of Part 1**

**Chinangel's Rant:** Ye Gods! By and far the longest chapter I've ever helped to write. Please thank Mosh Shrieken for his hard, hard work on this fic. Without him, this fanfic would fall flat on its face! By this point you should probably realize that I don't write normal fanfics. All my fics are dark and disturbed and this one will be no different (Although, thanks to Shrieken there will be some light parts, but anything dark and brooding, will probably be my influence. Anyhow, thank you for reading this first part. Please drop all your comments and questions in the appropriate box and please, no flames. If you didn't like it, say why, but nothing like "Ha ha you suck!" because that betrays limited maturity. Now onto Shrieken!

**Mosh Shrieken's Rant: **Thanks Angel. Most of the fic was already planned out and in the process of being written before I even joined on. Still, I'd like to thank the beautiful Chinangel for letting me collaborate in this endeavor. For those of you who didn't understand what I just said, I thanked Kitty (my nickname for her, not yours) for letting me help out.

A very very special thanks goes out to Dumbledork for saving this from the mess that it was. Thanks hun!


	2. Pieces

**Chinangel's rant:** Well it seems that some of you believe that I hate the Nerima Wrecking Crew as a whole. Well, I don't. Rei Mitsuhito's observations were all based on what she had seen Ranma and the rest of them do. She was comparing everyone to Ranma, who is difficult to measure up to. Since only Ryouga approaches Ranma in skill, then she believes only he is suitable. Please note, she also did say that they were all exceptional.

Also, somebody pointed out that the fight with Herb didn't take place in China. Look, you're probably right, but for the sake of argument, let's say it did. Shrieken and I are the ones with the pens damnitt! This is our fanfic. (Huff, huff) Okay, now that I've had my temper tantrum, I only have one last thing to say: If you leave an anonymous review, I'd also appreciate it if you'd email me or Shrieken. I like to be able to respond to my reviewers, and if I can't get in contact with you...

Anyhow, that's my rant. Now here's Shrieken! Glomp's Shrieken

**Mosh Shrieken's Rant:** Thanks Neko-chan. I just want to take this opportunity to thank all our reviewers on and all the imaginary ones on Seriously, we're really pleased with all your praises. On Unfortunately, our media miner readers don't seem to think we need any reviews. Hehehehehehe. Well, I'm not threatening you, per say, but if you don't review, I'm afraid my rabid ninja wombats here will attack. Anyway, here's the fic:

**This story is dedicated to the letter Ξ and the number 9.03.**

**Suggested Listening Music: **What Have you Done Now? Within Temptation

He had screwed up, badly, real badly.

Trudge, trudge, trudge.

He had been taken to help, and he had become a burden, and still she didn't care. He, HE! Still HE didn't care.

Trudge, trudge, trudge.

Now...now what? How was he going to explain everything? How was he going to tell her that he had screwed it up, screwed it all up?

Trudge, trudge, trudge.

How was he going to tell Akane that he had let Herb destroy the kettle? In doing so, had allowed Herb to essentially kill Ranma.

And it was his entire fault.

Ryouga's eyes stared at his chest and the weight of duty laid heavy upon his shoulders as he wandered the world, for once not wanting or even trying to find the Tendo dojo.

**The Weapon**

**A Ranma 1/2 fanfic by**

**Dianna "chinangel" Machen**

**And Mosh Shrieken**

The underground lab wasn't lit. She liked the darkness, reveled in it. Not for the symbolic purpose, but rather do to the fact that the harsh fluorescent lights burned her eyes, and eventually lead to headaches.

She took a long drag on a cigarette, wishing that she could taste it, but alas the act of smoking was merely a habit from a former life. One that, at times like this, she missed deeply.

She sighed and violently put out the cigarette in a makeshift ashtray, and began to dig through her desk which, like the lab, was a chaotic mess. She burrowed past week old reports, paper clips, pencils, chewing gum wrappers, week old cartons and post-it notes until she struck pay dirt, and produced a worn tape recorder and mini cassette.

"All the technology in the world and we're still using fucking tape recorders," she dryly complained and, with a sigh, slipped in a new cassette and began recording.

"Post-Surgical report: Doctor Miyuki Karasu," she paused, wondering. What was she supposed to say? "Thanks a lot for meddling in my project!" No? Well then why not: "Well, we've officially screwed up her life, way to go!" Or maybe, "She's going to look drop dead gorgeous at prom! With her date on one arm, and a Gatling gun on the other!" She pressed 'Stop' on the recorder and half threw, half dropped it on her desk. Karasu sighed and held her temples while glaring at the tape recorder.

"I need a cigarette."

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Ranma mumbled softly into the soft pillow about something that sounded like 'Fish cakes and pickles.' The surveillance people hidden in the next room all sweat-dropped at the words coming in over the bugs hidden in the standard looking hospital room.

Ranma realized something was wrong when she felt a soft, cushiony bed beneath her. _Waaaiit a second…. I don't have a bed. I normally sleep in a sleeping bag, or the futon at the Tendo Dojo. So why am I on a bed?_ It took her sleep-addled brain several minutes before thinking of looking around.

_HOLY CRAP I'M BLIND!! Oh, wait a sec._ Ranma opened her eyes and automatically looked down to see large, well-formed breasts. Ranma silently cursed in her head, and the watchers could probably guess at what she was thinking. If looks could burn, her chest would be a crisp right now.

She remembered, finally, what she was awake for, and took her surroundings in. White walls, a couple machines next to her bed, and a paper gown on her. Correction, a PINK paper gown on her, with a low-cut (it seemed) collar too. _Damn hospitals. Now how did I get here…? _

As she was trying to remember what had happened to her to to deserve a stay in hospital (probably a fight. Life is like that), her gaze drifted to her hand. And she stared. Her hand (?) looked somewhat… odd. Something was wrong. She instinctively tried to sense the ki in that area, and was stunned to find nothing. No ki... in most of her arm. Thoroughly freaked, she took another look at her body, using her ki-senses.

What she found scared the crap out of her. Even though it looked like she wasn't injured beyond small cuts...small precise cuts. Her stomach churned and she desperately tried to read deeper and yet the answer was still the same: Most of her insides and all of her limbs were missing any kind of ki. They were like voids in her body, and that scared her. It scared her a lot.

She lifted her hand, and immediately noticed some differences. To a normal person, they would feel almost exactly like normal arms, except that they couldn't get any input from them. However, to a trained fighter of Ranma's caliber, it's (was) instantly noticeable that the reaction time was severely lagging, and that the strength of the arms was heavily reduced, compared to his (was it her?) normal standards.

She sat up, and tried to get untangled from the wires and tubes connected to her. One of the first things she ripped out was the heart monitor, and the loud alarm alerted the nearby doctors. Said doctors rushed in and tried to calm Ranma down enough to put a sedative into her system .

One female doctor managed to get a needle into her IV line, and blackness descended on her…

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Kasumi sighed unhappily. It was becoming a habit of hers. So far she hadn't heard any news of the wayward Martial Artists. This could be good...or bad. It was hard to say for certain. But her instincts told her to give up hope. She ignored them.

"Good Morning Kasumi!" Akane said chipper as she hopped down the stairs, happiness written across her face.

"Good Morning Akane." she responded somewhat stiffly, but a smile graced her face nonetheless.

"I slept wonderfully! How about you?" she was fairly dancing around the room, while Kasumi continued to drop ingredients into the miso, and didn't answer. This however went completely unnoticed by the chipper middle Tendo sister.

"It's so good to have a normal day," she declared and grinned at Kasumi.

"Is there anything you need me to do?" Kasumi asked and gave as a serene a smile as she could force, while her sister flitted about the kitchen.

"Oh no, but is there anything you need me to do?" Kasumi's alarms went off as Akane grabbed a spare apron that hung on a hook at the back of the kitchen, and returned, tying the straps around her hips.

"It's okay Akane-chan," Kasumi responded with a smile that wasn't quite as bright as her normal ones, "I have it all in hand."

"No, I insist!" Akane responded with a grin and seized control of the miso preparation and began to add ingredients while the elder Tendo sister looked on in worry.

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He loved anime. He liked the images and appearances the artists used, and as a result, often adopted them for his own use. He was especially fond of Evangelion, and the character 'Gendo Ikari'. He had taken the character to heart, memorizing the slightest gestures, movements and nuances portrayed by Gendo, and applied them to real life. For it was certainly one thing to be disturbed by a cartoon character.

It was quite another to see that character represented in real life.

His name was Akuyo Masashiro, and he prided himself on his company's advancement in the fields of medicine and electronics. But now they were wading into virgin territory for his little secret company: weapons.

Viruses and bacteria can be cured; radio interference and satellite scouting can be countered. But a bullet to the head can't be reversed.

But he wanted more than guns, he wanted more than a new missile or a brand new world-devastating bomb. He wanted a gun that had never been seen before, a gun that could shoot, move, think and do the God Damn dishes if so asked.

On his desk, a manila folder lay open. Medical reports and technical jargon were by and large, ignored. Photos of the girl lay scattered across the mahogany desk, face down of course. He didn't have the stomach to see a young girl ripped open in such a grotesque manner. Still, the ends justified the means.

He stared out his window, down at the people wandering about on the streets below. Akuyo contemplated nothing as he flipped a mini cassette around his fingertips. He hadn't listened to it yet, as he was still working up the power to be able to sit through the Doctor's annoyingly judgmental tone. The woman was insufferable! She had already demanded many allowances for a project that had yet to yield any results! Then, as the project had finally begun to show progress, she complained about morality.

Like she was in any position to complain. Ultimately HE signed her checks, and it would take one phone-call to get the project scrapped. He...

Akuyo sighed grumpily and swiveled around on his chair. He pulled open a bottom left-hand drawer and retrieved a small tape recorder and, inserted the mini cassette, and pressed 'play'. There was a moment of silence and then it clicked to the end and he cursed softly.

Yet another way the woman taunted him: she refused to rewind the tapes. It was small and childish but it was one of many shows of contempt. He was beginning to doubt his own judgment in hiring her. He viciously stabbed the 'rewind' button and sent the tape back to the beginning before pressing play.

"Post surgical report: Doctor Miyuki Karasu."

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He could tell that she was upset; she always smoked when she was upset. Edward Delahue leaned against the desk of his superior and waited for her to butt out the cancer stick. It was the closest thing to drinking for Karasu, and judging by the number of cigarette butts in the ashtray, she was plenty upset.

"What is it Miyuki?" he asked softly, not as a co-worker but as a friend, and the only competent member of her staff. Karasu looked blearily at him and then held up a manila folder. It had a large figure eight scribbled across the front.

"I did some digging into candidate eight's past," she explained, then dropped the folder in front of him. Edward reached over, picked it up, and opened it.

"Interesting?" he asked and skimmed through the handwritten and typed articles. He also studied the pictures that were included. Some of the snapshots showed fantastic battle scenes or gymnastics that one only finds in comic books.

"Yes," Karasu bitterly responded and picked up another cigarette and stuffed it in her mouth, "Like a horror movie," she flicked her lighter and lit the tip, taking a long drag from it.

"Saotome Ranma," she breathed out, sending a column of smoke into the air, "Age sixteen, engaged to several young girls. A talented Martial Artist and a poor academic student." Edward looked over the report cards that were included. The marks agreed with her, except for Phys-Ed which had high 80's.

"And get this: cursed to turn into a girl." Edward stopped and looked over his shoulder at the golden-eyed Karasu.

"Bullshit," he responded, knowing full-well that it wasn't. Karasu never joked.

"Afraid not," She grumbled, "An honest-to-God, curse. He was born a boy. He somehow turns...turned into a girl with cold water." The change of tense wasn't lost on Edward.

"You say that in past tense," he noted.

"Yes, we screwed around with his...with HER body." She took another drag on the cigarette, "We replaced her arms, legs, and most of her organs." Edward waved that off.

"Yes, yes I know but..." then his mind began to work, "You don't think..." his eyes were wide and he stared at Karasu, who simply shrugged.

"I don't know," she responded angrily, and tapped ashes off her cigarette and into the ashtray, "We will have to check to be certain, but I'm fairly sure."

Edward looked back at the folder, his gut churning with guilt. Sixteen years old, and born a man. Now, they had turned him into...  
He turned around and dropped the folder next to the ashtray and held his large head between his hands.

"I need a cigarette," he whispered softly. She nodded in sympathy and tossed him the carton.

He tugged out the stick and flicked her lighter.

Together they smoked in silence, coming to grips with what they had done.

End of Part 2

**Chinangel's rant:** Ugh, I'm sorry that this is so much shorter, the whole thing felt forced for me. I've been wrestling with a major bout of writer's block and this didn't come out the way I wanted it to. I'm sorryI hope that the next chapter will be better. Anyhow, next chapter we should start on re-training Ranma, more surgery and upgrades!

Oh, in all my fanfics, I like to give each chapter a musical theme. Hence 'suggested listening music'. What do you people think of that? Bad Idea? Good Idea? Indifferent? Does anyone actually listen to the music? Please let me know!

Also, be certain to thank Dumbledork for his hard work okay? He's very talented and without him this whole project would quickly fall to shambles.

Now, here's Shrieken! (Huggles Shrieken)

**MShrieken's Rant: **ish huggled Thanks koi.

Well, not much to say. Other than REVIEW NOW! Authors thrive on reviews, they help make our writing less sucky. Anyway, this chapter goes to mostly Chinangel, as I actually wrote very little in this. So! ALL HONOR TO THE ANGEL!


	3. Author Information

Okay, this is just a place-holder for now

Okay, this is just a place-holder for now. I AM still writing! I just have had a lot happening in my life as of late .From having to find a new place to live, losing internet, therapy, everything in between. I have been swamped and unable to do much writing. But, I promise! There will be more on 'The weapon' and 'The Sound of Thunder' coming.

Just…please, be patient. I'm very overwhelmed right now.


	4. Flawed Design

**Chinangel:** Ugh! I'm so so sorry! I haven't posted for so long. I've been feeling lazy and uninspired to post anything. So today, I finally gave myself a kick in the butt, sat down and started writing. Hopefully, there won't be many repeats of this. ANYHOW! This chapter will actually move the story along (surprise surprise!) and, with any luck, will be longer than that last piece of garbage that I spat out.

Also, when people speak of Ranma's gender, it's in the way that they view Ranma. Anyhow, here's Shrieken!

**Shrieken:** I'm not sorry. I have no doubt everyone at is more than supportive, but over at Mediaminer, where I manage, it's completely dead.

Still, I do feel a bit bad for the FanFiction folks. Still not gonna apologize, but I do feel a bit bad.

**Suggested Listening Music:** Flawed Design by Stabilo

**The Weapon**

**A Ranma 1/2 fanfic by**

**Dianna "chinangel" Machen **

**And Mosh Shrieken**

The golden-eyed doctor watched the sleeping red head beneath her. The poor girl kept muttering in her sleep, twisting and turning. If it wasn't for the cocktail of drugs pumping through her system, the doctor was certain that she'd be awake and hammering against the walls. After reading her profile and watching the fantastical media clips, she was sure that the girl would be more than capable of punching through the rather meager defenses of the medical wing.

Sadly, Doctor Karasu couldn't find it in her to condemn that course of action. Any sane person would fight tooth-and-nail against those who would take them from their home and butchered their body.

She chewed her lip in concern. Masashiro had refused to assign more than a skeleton security detail to the wing.

"It's a hospital for Christ sakes!" he had scoffed, "What are they going to do? Hobble to freedom? Beat armed guards down with crutches? Outrun them in wheelchairs? No Doctor Karasu, the security is fine."

She sighed angrily and looked back at the other physicians. Useless drones. Instead of trying to calm the poor girl down, they had shot her up with more drugs, great. Wonderful way to build trust. She wasn't even going to bother wasting her breath on them. All that counted to them was the bottom line and project progression. They all saw big fat paychecks.

_"But you can't get paid if your project doesn't work!"_ she thought in disgust. Subject eight had to trust them, or at least, not hate them in order for the project to continue, or to even have ANY chance of success.

"Remove the IV drip." she snapped to the others, who proceeded to gawk at her, "Get your witch's brew out of her and let me know when she starts to wake up." she snarled and walked out the doors of the observation room. The automatic doors pleasantly sighed open, denying her the therapeutic sound of a slamming door.

Frustrated, she marched back to her lab, dodging the mousey technicians, bookish researchers and bored guards. Rows upon rows of laboratories, each numbered and labeled for convenience passed her by, reaching easily up into the hundreds. She was beginning to despise the clinical cleanliness of the facility, and the militaristic undercurrent that charged the building. She hadn't seen the outdoors in months, she wasn't allowed to.

Nobody who had any significant knowledge of projects was allowed outside until they had been proven to be a low risk factor. Even then, a small security division shadowed them. In her case however, Akuyo Masashiro simply didn't like her, a sentiment that she whole-heartedly returned. Akuyo Masashiro was also notoriously petty, and had denied her access to the outdoors with a conga-line of execuses and reasons. Sadly, she was bound into her contract, so her hands were tied.

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CMND: START_

Program found. Running…

referenced. Found. Running.

WARNING Primary Operator not found. Waking

"_What the...what the Hell!? What the hell is going on!?"_

Working… Operator found. resumed.

Life Support initialized. Stable.

WARNING 20mg Etomodate found. 200mg Succinylcholine found. 10mg Versed found. 10mg Nercuron found. 100mg Lidocaine found. Flushing system.

_"What the Hell!? Who's there? who's talkin'?"_

System clear. Resuming.

_"Resumin'? Resumin' what?"_

referenced. Found. Running.

Active Diagnostics… Online.

WIFI Connec… Online.

Prosthetics Startup… Running.

Neural net connected. Pain/Feedback discovered. Fixing… Complete.

_"Hey...that feels better."_

Adjusting compensators… Complete.

Full Diagnostic…

WARNING External Error

_"Error? What kinda error!? What the Hell is goin' on here?"_

Prosthetics Startup… Fail : Hardware Error

_"Pros...what the?"_

Systems Run-down:

Soft-plasma generator… 93% efficiency-Within acceptable limits

Life support… 97.8% efficiency

Internal 12mm GH5 Panzehuast Arm… Hardware Error-Missing

Internal 12,000 volt Tesla Coil/Projection Arm… Hardware Error-Missing

Associate External Multipurpose I/O Ports… Initialized… Unused, shutting down…

Ocular Implants… Online

_"AH! I can see! Now why can't I talk!?"_

Combat Recognition Software… Activated

Translation Software… Activated

Run

OS Systems… Online.

Hello Ranma.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?"

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"I don't know if I can finish the project!" she snapped to Edward, while pacing back and forth in his laboratory. The large gaijin grunted as he looked through a microscope and made several notes on a clipboard, "I turn my back on them for two seconds and some idiot gets it in his head to dope her up every drug in the wing!" she sat down heavily and scowled at the door.

"I'm not a babysitter." the irony of her own statement was lost on her as Edward grunted once more.

"Are you listening to me?"

"...No." he responded and made a few more jots on his clipboard. She glared grumpily at him but grew silent, watching him half stroll, half waddle about the lab. A stark contradiction to her own personal disaster zone, Edward's was clean, sterile. In Karasu's opinion, it lacked personality. Edward was head of programming the AI that was now an intricate part of Ranma, so why he was utilizing a microscope puzzled the golden-eyed woman. But she shouldn't ask, Edward was fond of secrets and conspiracies, and would sooner answer her with a riddle or some round-about clever answer that was correct in a certain light.

"What are you doing?" she asked, unable to contain her curiosity.

"Why I'm looking...through...a....microscope." he answered in an as-a-matter-of-fact way, jotting notes down and peering back into the microscope. She rolled her eyes, and opted for silence.

"Aren't there microscopes you should be looking through yourself?" she rubbed her head.

"No, my subject is still in a drug-induced coma."

"Ah yes yes." he looked up, "The 'drug cocktail'." she nodded. So he HAD been listening.

"So what are you going to do when she wakes up?" a few more notes jotted down.

"I don't know, probably...probably just tell her that she has to cooperate or else the project will be cancelled and she will be flushed down the proverbial toilet." Edward looked up at this, his right eyebrow raised.

"Tell a military-grade cyborg, who can bench press a tank, that she has to cooperate?"

"Her limbs aren't online and we haven't loaded her up with her internal systems. Her external weapons are only half done too." Edward frowned, but nodded.

"I see." he didn't approve. But then again, Doctor Miyuki Karasu was almost morally bankrupt. Almost. She still had a conscience and it was nagging at her right now.

"What about her combat software?" Edward asked, going back to his microscope.

"It's online naturally, but after she woke up last time, we decided to take her limbs offline. At least, until we know she won't power through the guards and destroy the facility."

"So if it's online than, shouldn't her system be flushed of the toxins now?" Karasu's face blanked for a moment, before becoming one of intense aggravation.

"SHIT!" she scurried from the lab, the chuckles of Doctor Edward Delahue following her.

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"Doctor!" one of the faceless members of her medical team breathed a sigh of relief. She pointedly ignored his babbling about 'breach of protocol'. There was no protocol for this situation! She was flying blind here. She pushed through white coats of her incompetent medical team and peered through the window. The sight that greeted her forced a grimace on her face.

The red head had stopped shouting and was glaring. Glaring directly at the glass, her eyes had a slight golden tinge to them, indicating that Ranma was using some sort of optical enhancement. Behind her, the medical team was in an uproar. People were pointing fingers as to why their subject wasn't reacting within expected projections. Apparently, they thought that she should react like some kid in a candy store; after all, who DOESN'T want to be part of something that could have been stolen from a comic book?

"Shut. UP!" Karasu roared, and was echoed by Ranma. She flicked a look at the still glaring red-head. She had greatly underestimated the latent skills of the girl. Ranma was supposed to only have the most basic of skills available to her, and yet she had somehow managed to access the optical enhancements, and auditory feedback.

The nameless drones fall silent, stunned and cowed into submission by the superhuman cyborg and their creepy supervisor.

Ranma glances at the woman who just came in, a golden-eyed girl in a lap coat. From the way the various doctors are acting, she's obviously higher up. Ranma points directly at her, and asks forcefully. "Who the hell are you, where the hell am I, and what the HELL have you done to me!?"

Karasu almost sighs. The idiotic, so-called 'doctors' obviously had made a bad impression. "I'm Dr. Miyuki Karasu. We're in what is called the Facility. As for what has been done… A lot. Come with me, and I'll tell you about it." She types in the access code, releasing the locks and letting Ranma enter the observation booth.

Ranma cautiously watches her as she does something out of view. Suddenly, there's a loud clunk, which the voice in her head identifies as locks unlocking, and the armored door to the right of the observation window swings open. She's noticed, by now, that everything feels okay. Except for the almost complete lack of human ki in most of her body. Other than that disconcerting feeling, however, it's as if she was never injured.

Ranma goes to walk forward, and notes the slight delay in thought and action. _That will be a liability, should I get in a fight_, she thinks. _I'll have to be careful and end it fast._ She passes through the door, and, throwing the doctors who were trying to contain her a ki-powered glare, follows the strange, yellow-eyed woman.

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"Look around Subject Eight." Karasu said with a slow wave of her hand, and Ranma did, gaping. Whatever it is that they jammed in her head highlighted a passing doctor's face with a digital, green rectangle, and then his id, bringing both up on the left hand side of her vision, she absently waved her hand at it, and tried not to absorb the information about Kobayashi Kogatsu, a Doctor who was in charge of the 'Controlled Mutagen Evolution' project.

She squeezed her eyes shut and gave her head a quick, but violent, shake and pried her eyes open again, her gaze landing on a guard. Guardsman Miho Shishimiya. She was new to the corporation, but a veteran of firearms. Her armor was kevlar and hard leather with her weapon being an MP5.

"ARGH!" Ranma held her head and Karasu turned to her in concern, "What's wrong?" she asked startled, "GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD!" Ranma shrieked, her fingernails digging into the sides of her head, "GET IT OUT GET IT OUT!" and then as the stressed red head shrieked, she heard a mental 'click' and when she looked up, there was no weird information flooding her brain. No green boxes floating around people's faces, clothes or guns.

Just joyful silence.

"The Artificial Retinal data Gathering/storage and Utilization System. Or ARGUS." Karasu nodded, "You'll get used to it." Ranma glared at her, a vicious response on her lips, but she swallowed it and followed the doctor. If she was going to get out of here, she'd need to know the layout of the building.

"This way." Karasu stated. Ranma felt naked in the hospital gown, but followed none the less, her metal limbs clinking eerily against the ground.

"Why me?" She asked quietly, bitterly, very much aware that the doctor's who were spying on her in the recovery room where following in a swarm, trying to be stealthy but failing rather spectacularly.

"Circumstance." Ranma was taken aback by Karasu's equally bitter tone. The Doctor stopped at a door that had two armed guards. Ranma had quickly become accustomed to the machine-like appearance of the guards: black-painted metal, black kevlar and black guns, with black helmets that covered their heads, and black facemasks to protect their identity.

Black and sterile grey were the colour schemes for this...place, where-ever the hell she was, it was depressing, artificial. Everything was rigid and lifeless; even the guards were more like machines then people.

Ranma quickly killed that line of thinking, not wanting to think of machines or people, although the 'good' doctor was making that exceedingly difficult.

Karasu showed Ranma the medical wing, explaining that until they had a chance to fine-tune Ranma's new body, that this would be her home. Ranma, through a herculean effort, was managing to keep her anger in check. she kept reminding herself that if she blew up, they would just drug her, and she couldn't fight unless she knew what they had done to her.

Karasu took Ranma to a particularly spartan room, it was softly lit, and had a single bed inside, a room with a toilet could be seen connecting it, and a few light switches.

"This is where you'll stay." Karasu began. Ranma wasn't impressed, the room wasn't all that small, but any martial arts done in here would be...limited.

"What did you do to me?" Ranma demanded quietly, barely keeping a hold of her rage.

"Saved your life," Karasu snapped back smartly, before muttering to herself, "in a manner of speaking."

Ranma's sharp ears picked it up, but she didn't press it for now.

She had to know what exactly had happened to her body.

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"Cyberization."

Ranma just stared. Karasu seemed to be under the impression that she understood that. So, she elegantly and politely conveyed her confusion.

"Huh?"

Karasu sighed. Ranma bristled slightly at the implication that she was stupid, but before she could say anything, the doctor started to explain.

"Basically, when we recovered you, you were a wreck. Without help, you would have died. Hell, even with help, you barely had a chance. Somehow, you managed to pull through, and you've even adapted to the implants faster than expected. We didn't think you'd be able to walk yet." Her eyes tracked down to the bottom of the hospital gown, which Ranma had just realized she was wearing.

With a hard blush, Ranma tugged the thin gown down as much as possible, embarrassed. Karasu just rolled her eyes, and offered a plate of snacks, which Ranma accepted.

The tastes of the sandwiches were sharper than she recalled, either it was the crap they had stuck in her body, or maybe she was just very alert, but either way these things tasted really good.

"When are ya gonna let me go?" she asked after she finished one.

"I don't know." the doctor admitted and Ranma growled.

"You can't keep me here forever Doc, I'll get out. Sooner or later I swear."

The doctor didn't reply, but her eyes flicked to a strange small black orb attached to the upper left corner of the ceiling, before looking back at Ranma.

"For now I ask you to trust me," she states, her eyes seeming to glow. "That's all I ask of you. Trust me."

"...okay doc..." Ranma's instincts were screaming while her internal warning was shrieking 'defcon 5' went off in her mind, but she found them so easy to ignore.

The doctor nodded, and left the sandwiches and red-head alone, giving Ranma time to eat and think. It was only when the Doctor was out of the room and well down the hall did Ranma finally notice how WRONG the situation was. But showed uncharacteristic patience.

"I can't get outta here until I get m'body back under control." she mused, "May as well start with getting washed." she looked around at her room. It was actually fairly large, double the dimensions of her old one, roughly the size of a small dojo, with a bed in one corner, that black orb up in the roof and a connected bathroom with shower.

with a sigh, the red head walked until the bathroom and stripped out of the hospital gown they had left her in, and studied her body carefully. On the surface they LOOKED the same, but when you looked closer: one would notice how her arms were oddly shiny stiff. They had no hair anywhere on them, and no wrinkles in the skin, no veins on the back of her palms, and her fingernails were perfectly flat. She turned her hand over, feeling the fears and cables in her arm shift, which was disturbing to the Red head. The doctor had explained that she had robot parts in her, but to feel them in action, through her synthetic nerves, was...unsettling at least.

She dropped her hand, prematurely ending the self-examination and stepped into the shower, turning on the hot water. She yelled as it cascading down on her and leapt under the water-free safe-zone beneath the shower-head, and adjusted the knobs so the water was more appealing.

"I'm..." she paused and looked down, still a girl, dripping with hot water. Oddly she wasn't surprised. She never recovered the kettle, and from what she had been told; Herb blew up the Mountain.

"You..." she fixed an image of Herb's smirking visage in her mind and snarled angrily, clenching her fist until sparks shot from her fingertips and palm. She had a goal, now all she needed to do was work towards it.

**END OF PART 3**

**Chinangel's Rant: **HOOOOOOOOLY CRAAAAAP! I'm alive! FU FU FU FU FU! Yes I'm alive, and finally working on my stories again! I know I write slower than a melting iceberg but please bear with me. I know where I wanna go with this mess but getting there is the hard part. MUUUU...why can't fics write themselves? It'd make my life soooooooo much easier. At any rate, Yes, Ranma is OOC in this, but I'm trying to keep her close as I can without having her go bonkers from being roboticized (insert Robotnik's theme here) because of that typical Takahashi stubborness and short temper. So anyone who's hyperfocused on 'canon' may wanna stop reading here because Ranma's going to be unusually patient with this situation, biding her time until she deems that it's 'go time' as it were. Muahahahahaha! At any rate, thank you for your patience. Please read and review!

One last final note: this version has NOT been proof-read, so please ignore any (all) mistakes made okay? I'll upload an editted/proofread version later.


	5. Red Hair, Gold Eyes

**Chinangel: **betcha all thought i was dead, didn't ya? HAHAHAHAHA!...okay so anyone who is still following this piece of trash probably is pissed at me. I mean...what...five years since my last update? Believe it or not i haven't forgotten about it, but i have had a lot of changes in my life...major ones. Moving, medical changes (let's just say there is a reason I love a story about a boy that turns into a girl), getting fired, moving, getting a new job, moving..moving again.

Seeing my bf (Moshivus) in real life. Yeah, this has all been a wild ride. But I never once forgot about this story.

So, without further ado...I present to you...

**Suggested Listening Music:** (Slave to) The New Black Gold [By Miracle of Sound]

**The Weapon**

**A Ranma 1/2 fanfic by**

**Dianna "chinangel" Machen **

Ranma dressed quietly. It had been three weeks since she awoke in that room, at least. During this time, she had tried to get used to the 'enhancements' on her face. Namely two "L" shaped metal pieces that followed the contour of her cheek bones under her eyes, and a triangular piece of metal on her forehead. She had also recieved her first upgrades to finish her changes. The first was a 'tesla claw', though it was inappropriately named. It was more like a spike, a single, long, powerful spike that she could extend from between her index and ring finger of her right hand. The spike could be filled with a powerful charge, and while she was furious to be forcibly equipped, the Doctor had given her a very sobering conversation.

"I want to help you," she had said, "And I will do what I can to make this all easier on you. But you need to cooperate with me Ranma." thus far, with the limited exposure Ranma had been allowed with the rest of 'the team', Doctor Karasu had been the only one who had bothered to learn her and reffer to her by name, a sentiment Ranma had returned. So far, the Doctor was her only ally in this mess, and while she was pissed at her for altering her body, she did on some level understand that the doctor had saved her life...and was the only person willing to try and help Ranma, and see her as a person, not just a lab rat. A metal lab rat.

"You will be forced to fight enemies much more powerful than you, " She had to begrudgingly admit, the idea excited her, "More powerful than you could've feasibly taken before your change." Ranma found that idea amusing, who was better than-

"Tanks, soldiers with guns and grenades, jeeps with machine guns on them."

Ranma blinked, a bit surprised.

"These people want to KILL you Ranma. They will be paid handsomely to try and kill you, not disable, not beat you up. KILL you. I want to drive that home." She had gripped the red-headed cyborg by the arms, "They. Will. Shoot. And. Kill. You."

That had been sobering, and started to give her a realization of what kind of world she was facing. Most assumed she was disturbed by the idea of killing another...which was silly. She had been taught that martial artists protect the weak, and sometimes that means putting someone down. Hard. Permanently.

However she tried to avoid it, becuase so far her opponents hadn't been trying to murder her, despite their claims. None of them were really all that serious, with the closest being Shampoo. Even she had stopped.

But these people weren't trying to use magical phoenixes that sat on your head an pecked your forehead, or cat spirits that wanted to marry you, or training potties, or umbrella's, or canes. They were using guns, and bombs. They had been tried to kill people, and probably had before.

Thus, begrudgingly, she had accepted the weapon as a necessary tool to what was to come, and vowed to learn how to use it to it's fullest potential.

But this wasn't the only problem she had discovered, oh no. She had begun to train with her arms and legs once again, when another stumbling block fell in her path.

She was afraid that she wouldn't be able to feel anything...but this had proven incorrect.

"You would experience a disconnect between your mind and body if we hadn't given you the ability to sense things. Your body has digital senses, digital nerves. They call up old memories for things you have experienced or touched before, and create new ones for things that you haven't touched or experience." That had been fine, though she still didn't know if the new or old experiences would be accurate..but at the same time she had been given very little choice in the matter.

No, the new problem had been during training. Ranma had threw the first punch and stopped immediately, staring at her arm in surprised anger.

"What's wrong?" Karasu asked.

"..my arm." she flexed it, "It's..slow. I told it ta punch, but it didn't..not right 'way."

The doctor frowned.

"How..bad is it?"

"bad, for a martial artist, timin's everythin'. I need ta know that if i wanna punch som'thin, my body will let me. It'll let me punch, or jump, or kick or dodge. But if i'm tellin' it ta do somethin', and it doesn't..what good is it?"

The golden-eyed physician had been taken back by the sudden burst from the red-head. it was more in-depth than she had expected, more analytical.

"It must be lag from your brain to your new spine." she thought for a moment and looked at the frustrated red-head.

"I..may have a solution."

"what?" the red-head demanded immediately

"Well...replace the current model of your spine with a more high-grade one, one built around a fibre-optic cable. that would speed signals to your limbs, letting you react at the speed of thought. Theoretically."

Ranma sat on the ground of the training room and stared at the floor. it was green and blue mats, with a few mirrors scattered around the otherwise drab, grey walls.

A choice, one that could save her life and make sure she lived ta get outta here...Seemed like a simple answer. Except that it wasn't, in accepting this, she would not only be changing herself agian...but This time it would be willing. She'd be willingly changing her spine, like it was a bad battery in the remote control, or Nabiki's game boy. Toys...machines. Things, not people, things. People didn't casually tlak about replacing bad..no..umm..not working...

her vision was filled with words as her new cybernetic brain spat words out into sight, providing meanings of the words so she could better frame her feelings.

Replacing...defective. Yeah...defective body parts so casually.

"what are my odds of surviving i fi don't get the new spine?" Ranma queried while still staring at the bland mats.

"I don't know Ranma," the doctor gripped her clipboard, "You tell me; it's your body"

Ranma grimaced...her mind telling her what the odds were. Bad. She had always relied on quick, accurate strikes, but if her body refused to cooperate, then how could she defend herself? How could she fight.

"Fine...do it." she says quietly. The doctor nods and prepared to leave when the red-head piped up

"hey doc?" she turned back.  
"Yes Ranma?"

The red-headed girl dressed to her body.

"What's powerin' all this?"

Karasu pointed at Ranma's tummy.

"In there, hidden behind all your intestines, is a small power-plant. That little plant provides way way way more power than you need. "

"oh..." well that had answered that.

So, Good as her word, the doctor had upgraded the red-head. the process had been so fast and painless. They had brought her into the surgery and laid her down on her tummy with her shirt off. There, they removed plate covering her spine and disconnected it. Ranma felt some discomfort at the disconnect and panic when she couldn't move. Then, at the base of her skull there was jerking and she felt like someone had just punhced her in the base of her head.

The new spine was carefully laid in place where the old one had been. The doctor had designed the prototype to be backwards compatible with the old preperations they had made, meaning there was very little they had to do in order to change her back. In fact, the most challenigng part came in grafting new skin over the spine.

The older model had a simple set of metal plates that covered it, but the plates were bulky and inflexible. The new spine was smaller, less bulky, and so the doctor merely covered it with a series of plates that were thin and half the length of the original, allowing the redhead a wider variety of moves. Then the skin was put overtop.

It wasn't really 'skin' per se, but it acted like it, enough that it was impossible to tell where the surgery had taken place.

When she saw this she then demanded: 

"Why didn'cha do this to my arms?" She gestured to her pale, metallic bicept.

"Your arms have far more moving surfaces than your back. more plates, more parts, the skin would get caught and torn in the arms, plugging up your joints." Ranma had to begrudgingly accept this.

So with the surgery done, Ranma returned to the trianing room.

The suit she had been given consisted of a black sleevless shirt with a zero above the right breast, loose black pants with a belt and slippers. She wasn't sure if this was done for her sake or if it what anyone would've been forced to wear.

Either way, she took her stance, noting how much smoother the transition was, how fast and precise, and began

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"she's taking this rather well" noted edward, watching the martial artist go through some basic punches and kicks, from the safety of an observation booth overlooking the training room.

"her mind is very resiliant and adapts to new situations quickly." agreed Karasu, "God help us if she decided she didn't want to play nice. I have no idea what I'd do."

"Don't you have some kind of remote device?"

"yes but I didn't put it in. A sign of trust."

Edward was surprised at the normally cautious doctor.

"I hope you know what your'e doing..."

She nods.

"I do."

Leaning down, to a control panel she pressed a button.

"Ranma, I'm going to send in one of our security teams. They're armed only with paintball guns so you don't need to kill them, but I want to get a reading for where you are in terms of skill."

Ranma looked up at the doctor through the glass and nodded. This was something she wanted to know for herself anyways.

She turned and faced the doors. All doors had a little card reader next to them, with an indicator light above: green or red. Her doors were always red, to keep her in. But now it turned green and seven soldiers entered. They had basic gear on with brightly-coloured guns in their hands.

Ranma bowed to them, just slightly and slipped into her stance, left leg forward slightly and hands curled slightly at her side with her head tilted down just slightly.

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Rei regarded the redhead before herself and her team. She had seen the girl in combat before, but that was before the upgrades. Though her life had been saved, her doctors had barely done anything to hide her new implants. her arms were only painted the colour of skin, and it was painfully obvious they were metal, and nothing was done to cover the implants on her face, or the shiny nature of her new eyes.

Her joints clicked and whirred nearly silently as she shifted into a casual position.

"Spread out..." she yells and her team does so, forming a semi-circle around the redhead. Then rei herself fires the first shot.

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Ranma turned her face at the popping noise and time seemed to slow down for her. The paintball moves slowly...painfully slow towards her, and it becomes highlighted in her vision. In front of it, several golden lines dot towards her, and a small window pops up in hte corner of her vision. It shows a digital outline of her current position, and the incoming round, and the likely impact spot. HOwever, the round is outlined with a 65 percent marker.

Ranma twisted her body, trying to hop out of the way of the round, her face scanning the other soldiers. Each gun barrel gets highlighted, with possible bullet trajectories being highlighted from the barrel towards her.

The redhead grins.

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Karasu nodded with approval as the redhead jerked out of the way of the shot, a blue splash landing on the wall behind it. Rei seemed surprised, and fired agian, another shooting along with her. Ranma cartwheeled with one hand to the side, but didn't attack yet.

"She's learning..." she murmured, watching the redhead, and imparticular: those glowing golden eyes.

"She's accessing her optical implants already. Extraordinary."

The team looked frustrated as they moved closer, firing in small bursts to try and keep the pressure up, but Ranma was just too fast! Leaping from spot to spot, never jumping so high as to give them an easy target, and never staying in place. Testing her newfound ability, learning it...

then the firing stopped. 

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"SHIT!" yelled one of her subordinates, voicing the very thought the rest of Rei's team had. Their normal weapons had five more rounds than these paintball guns, a limitation they just learned of.

And it seemed, judging by the way Ranma was grinning, she just realized it too.

First, she dove at the one on the farthest left, landing in a crouch and spinning, knocking his legs out from under him. But as he was tripped she grabbed his ankle and spun again, hurling him into the next closes one.

"one...two..." Ranma chanted and leapt at the third one, trying to reload. "BUCKLE MY SHOE!" she side-kicked him, and he crumpled holding his stomach.

"THREE!" she used him as a springboard and extended her arm, landing beside the next soldier and slamming him into the mats with it. "FOUR! ON THE FLOOR!" she sprang forward and tripped one of them with her body, shielding it as the fifth fired at her, but only succeeded in hitting his companion several times.

"FIVE, SIX!" ranma picked up her shield and switched him for battering ram, bodily slamming his back into the chest of the shooter, sending them both to the ground. One punch to his face made him head-butt his buddy, and broke his jaw in the process, kncoking him out

"PICK...UP" she grabbed their guns and threw them at two others, "STICKS!" they're knocked backwards, welted and bruised from the guns, allowing hre to close range as Rei finishes reloading and starts to fire, hitting only air.

Ranma dispatches the two and then jumps at Rei who fired blindly at the airborne redhead

"NINE..TEN..." 

Rei grunted as the redhead landed on her, and her metal fist slammed into the ground next to Rei's head, the resulting 'boom' stunning the soldier for a moment.

"That's...the end" Ranma finished ominously.

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"..incredible." Edward said quietly, and Karasu nodded proudly.

"Yeah..almost perfect." Agreed Karasu.

"Almost?"

"Look at her shirt." Edward took a second glance. It was splattered with green and blue paint.

"Lucky shots?"

"Yeah, probably wouldn't have killed her but would've damaged. Still..."

Ranma helped the bruised fighters up, one needing medical attention for his broken jaw.

Then, the redhead turned and pointedly looked up at Karasu and edward in the booth, her eyes still burning that irridiscent gold, a large smirk on her face.

"she wants us to knwo she's not afraid of us." Edward relaized and Karasu nodded, having reached the same conclusion. and she slowly...slowly...clapped.

**End of Part 5**

**Chinangel's Rant**:BLAAAAAAAAAAARGH! Yeah...I did it. WOHOO! i have no idea where this story is going tbh, and lots of people have asked me questions about it. "Is this a GiTS crossover? is this Bionic Woman? Is this this? Is that that?" Okay, well let's clear tyhat up now.

This has no real ties to any show or anime or game, but it has things that inspired it. Namely..the cybernetics were inspired by Shirow Masamune's "Black Magic" and Yukito Kishirow's "Battle Angel Alita". Ranma's weapons are pretty much either my own creation, one lifted from GiTS and the rest were nabbed from Armored Core 4.

This story has potential to be amazing...ooooooooor to suck balls. I have no idea. SOMEONE HELP ME! O.O


	6. Strengths and Weaknesses

**Authors Note:** well I'm risking burning out here, but meh, I don't have a whole lot else to do.

I'd like to thank the people who took the 3 minutes out of their day to review my silly li'l fanfic, and apologize for somet things i noticed in reading.

1) I struggle in keeping the proper tense sometimes. This is rather emberassing, but I often act out my scenes in real life to try and get a sense for what's happening in them. But this changes the tense in my head from past to present.

2) I have actually thought out Ranma's cybernetics to a fair degree, as well as Ranma's morality. I dislike this idea that Ranma has a problem with killing and I'm not sure where it began. Nor that Ranma dislikes weapons. Ranma has used weapons before without much hesitation as Ranma is confident with her hands and feet as well as any weapon thrust into them, as a result Ranma would probably suppliment her weaknesses with weapons if she had no choice.

3)Lastly, and now this isn't related to my fanfic as much as it is to others. I hate this idea of taking Ranma's martial arts away or taking away the girlside of her curse. To me that kinda ruins the character. Locking Ranma girl is fine though as Ranma was born a boy, and lead a large chunk of his life AS a boy, so it is still "Ranma 1/2" even if she's locked en femme.

4) Ponies. Fluttershy is best.

ANYWAYS! Sorry for the long essay there, just a few thoughts I had to get out of my system. So without further ado...

**Suggested Listening Music:** Cyborg Mermaid [Akira Kamita]

**The Weapon**

**A Ranma 1/2 fanfic by**

**Dianna "chinangel" Machen **

"here you go Eight" Ranma bristled a little as the soldier slid a tray into her room through the feeding slot. It had some pretty basic things on it, meat, potatoe's that sort of uninimaginative, foreigner dinner. Carefully, she picked up the tray and unwrapped the utinsiles provided.

She had learned the hard way about her strength. She had guessed since her last training session that her natural strength was now a bit beneath her ki-powered strength, but when she tried her hardest and pushed her body to the limit, she would reach a little over half of ki-powered strength.

So on one hand her attacks were naturally more powerful, but on the other hand they didn't have the same stopping power as her ki-powered maneuvers. That meant if...

NO! she shook her head and glared at the tray, her hands warping the corners as frustration filled her.

"no...WHEN I face Herb, I gotta have more...I gotta have somethin' ta..ta..." she waited patiently as her implants offered her words.  
"Umm...somethin'...somethin' ta suppli..suppliment my lost strength" she grinned very slightly to herself. Man, this thing would be useful in upsettin' Nabiki. Makin' her sound smart an' stuff.

The door slid open as she began to eat and The Doctor walked in and leaned against the door and began to smoke.

"hey, I want to talk to you about your last training session against Miss MItsuhito's team."

Ranma nodded and listened as she ate.

"You did well, but did you notice anything in your vision?"

"umm..yeah, yeah this thing came up tellin' me where people were gonna shoot..."

Karasu nodded.

"Yes, that's the ARGUS system." she reached out and tapped the metal triangle sticking out of Ranma's head.

"This. One of it's most important functions is that it scans the enemy's gun and watches the way the barrel moves through visual data recieved from your eyes."

Ranma's vision swam with words, explaining to her what everything the doctor said in laymen's terms.

"Kay..."

"Then, it will warn you of incoming projectiles and where the potential target is on your body, with a certain percentage of accuracey. But Ranma, this system isn't perfect."

Ranma shifted and put her plate down, 

"Kay, so it tells me, or tries ta, where people are gunna shoot at me from?" Karasu nodded.

"The intersecting lines in your vision should show you where they are aiming on your body, or where the system THINKS they're aiming, but don't rely too heavily on this. Like the tesla spike it's only-"

"yeah about this thing" she extended it with a metallic 'shing', "Why's it called a claw?"

"well..we were originally going to have three energy claws project from your knuckles, but it wasn't viable and I liked the spike more. You'll be able to overload enemy systems with it, severely damage or even destroy tanks with it, and it gives you a simple, nearly indestructible weapon that is easily hideable?"

"And the the..." she waited patiently as the name popped up

"Panzerhaust 12mm?"

"A shotgun."

Ranma's eyebrow lifted.

"Shotgun?"

"yes," she nodded to ranma's left arm.

"The current arm you have is just a loner, we're finishing the shotgun now. It's only an anti-personel weapon that can carry 5 shells. it will fire from your palm. Some wanted an automatic, but since you preffer brawling, I thought a shotgun would be more prudent."

"oh..." Ranma couldn't find any problems with that logic.

"So those are my weapons?"

"not your only ones."

Ranma lifted her eyebrow.

"you have an entire armor system being designed...here come with me"

she opened the door and Ranma followed.

They went down the hall past guards that looked rather bored and sealed labs, though in one Ranma's enhanced senses made out screaming, much to her dismay and she tried to ignore it.

They entered what looked like a garage and the doctor went to a computer console that was near the back of the wall and pressed a few buttons.

two metal pannels in the middle of the floor opened up and lifted up a...thing. It looked like two metallic shoulder pieces-pauldrons her computer provided.

they were a simple triangular shape with some kind of cones pointing downwards inside, and the beginnings of arm pieces and a back portion.

"The back piece," the doctor explainede, "Will hook into your spine, and channel the energy from your power plant into the armor, allowing you to fly."

Ranma's eyes widened in excitement

"Yes...fly. Not indefinate, but sustained for up to five minutes before requiring a three minute recharge." she explained.

"the shoulder and foot units will have maneuvering thrusters in them, allowing you to change your directions.

The arms will also have larger external weapon units, and the back will have two weapon pods, which I am still designing." she explained, walking around the unit.

"So..I"ll be a gundam?" she asked in delight.

"Er...a..." the doctor looked confused for a moment.

"oh..umm..sort of..." she admitted after some thought. "The external armor however is big and bulky and not so suited for martial arts. If you have it on, you'll be more weapon reliant."

Ranma nodded dismissively...flying.

"oh god Nabiki's going to shit herself." she grinned. But the grin slowly faded.

"what...what about my family?"

"Ranma...I'll...I'll send them a message. I'll tell them you're alright, okay?"

She nodded.

"Thanks..."

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"I'm worried..." kasumi said softly.

Akane snorted.

"Why? The idiot's probably gone off chasing poor Ryouga. AGAIN." Kasumi frowned a little, but the possibility...was there.

Nabiki stirred her breakfast around, but not really eating.

"Nabiki, are you alright?"

Nabiki sighed picked her plate up and headed into the kitchen, Kasumi following her in.

"There...were some people" She said, putting the plate on the counter, "they were asking about Ranma. They paid a fair bit. THis was last-"

"RANMA!" a voice yelled, and the two, on reflex, went to look at the dining room, where they saw a dishevelled, bandaged Ryouga leaning against the door.

"WHERE IS RANMA!"

"oh no..." Whispered Kasumi.

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Ryouga was laying on a futon in the dojo while the families crowded around him.

"There was a massive explosion," he explained, "I think it was from Herb. I was thrown wild."

"What about Ranma?" probed Soun.

"Ranma?" Ryouga focused for a second in thought.

"I...recall...I remember seeing a big black thing come flying up towards the mountain...it had blades on the top...I-I think it was a helicopter."

"You think?" they turned at the voice, and saw a gnome clasping a walking cane with a tall buxom violet-haired girl next to it.

"Cologne-san." Kasumi rose politely.

"greetings girl." Cologne said as she pogo'd in.

"I suspect there is more to this story than just what the boy knows." she said, sliding to the bottom of the stick.

"YOU HOLDING OUT ON ME!" Genma roared and grabbed Ryouga by his lappel's, to which Ryouga decked him with such force that the larger man rolled all the way across the dojo and into a slumped heap on the wall.

"NO! I FLEW AWAY AFTER THAT AN' GOT LOST!

"The boy is telling the truth." Confirms Cologne, "But someone here knows more of what happened than they realize." 

the room was pregnant with silence as everyone shot accusatory looks around, save for Soun who was making a conciouse effort to raise sea levels with his tears.

"Nabiki..." Kasumi said after a moment, "what was it you were saying to me in the kitchen?"

Nabiki squirmed, gripping her hands together.

"I..umm...there were some people," she stammered, now quite aware of the number of high-powered martial artists gathered in this room, each one of them with a stake in the youngest Saotome. Cologne tapped the middle tendo's hand gently and comfortingly,

"go on..."

"well..they wanted to buy some information on Ranma. I thought they were just rivals, so I sold them stuff. Ranma's age, height, favourite food, that kind of thing."

"what did they look like? Did they have any sort of symbol on them?"

Nabiki struggled to remember.

"Did it look like this?" she gestured and Shampoo brought over a box and opened it.

Inside was a tattered piece of cloth with a few red stains on it that nabiki didn't want to consider. The cloth had a blue arrow pointing upwards, surrounded by a blue circle.

"Ummm...yes. YES!" she nodded, remembering seeing one of them wearing a lapel pin with the innocuous mark. She had thought nothing of it at the time, but now it was revealing itself to be an important clue.

"Sky International," Cologne nodded gravely as Shampoo closed the box.

"The Amazons, Musk and Phoenix have all had issues with them. They have a great interest in the springs, and our three peoples, and have clashed repeatedly with us. From the Amazons, they attempt to take our relics and teachings, they attempt to steal the children from the musk and I imagine they want the phoenix people themselves."

"I recognized a few of their agents observing Xian-Pu, myself and Mu-Tzu. I had assumed that they were only after us, until Xian Pu reported that she had seen them observing others as well."

"others?" Asked Ryouga, sitting up entirely.

"Yes. Yourself for starters. As well as the Kuno siblings, Miss Ukyo, The Panda, Akane and The Old Pervert...and of course: Son-in-law"

"Ranma..." Breathed Kasumi, "Would they have taken her?...Him?" the slip went by most, except for Cologne who cocked an eyebrow and grinned knowingly at Kasumi, but didn't answer the unasked question, going isntead for the one spoken.

"Yes, I believe so. Ranma is a pillar of trouble, and this has driven her-"

"HIM!" yelled genma,

"-to be the best there is. Either bec ause of or in spite of the panda's interferrence. Naturally this also means there are others interested int hose skills, and wish to harness them, for better or worse."

"But...what would sky want with Ranma?" asked Akane, holding a blushing Ryouga's hand.

"that my dear," said Cologne gravely, "is the real question. We need to go to Jusendo and find out what happened there, before we can focus on Sky."

They nodded in agreement and plans were made to head to Jusendo.

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"so, what's next?" asked Ranma as she followed Doctor Karasu back

"Well your martial skills are so advanced that we couldn't teach you anything you don't already know," explains Karasu, making Ranma smugly smirk, "however." then frown.

"Your skill with firearms is non-existant." Ranma pouted at that. But it was true.

"So, i'm going to take you to the firing range, and give you a special gift I got this morning. By the time you're comfortable with guns, you should have your new arm and be able to show off to my boss."

Ranma stopped.

"Your boss?"

"Search your files."

Ranma wracked her microchipped brain, until a file popped up in her vision

"Akuyo Masashiro," she began, as she 'flipped' through the digital file before her. This 'Akuyo' guy was short but stocky, with a somewhat severe expression, with a mustache and goatee, and a frown that looked like it had been surgically grafted onto his face.

"head of the Japanese R and D division of SKY. Rutheless, and cruel. Probable sadist" she quoted. THe file was sparse, mostly pictures and statistics.

"huh..."

"If you fail to impress him, he will have the project scrubbed and the prototype terminated. You."

Ranma's frown deepened.

"So..this dickhead's the guy I gotta wow?"

"Yes."

"how?"

"I don't know right now. the test will be in six months at the latest, but he'll probably push for two months."

"Two months?"

"probably. So I have to get you combat-ready for two months. We have no time to waste."

Ranma nodded numbly and followed her to the elevator and down three levels.

"You haven't tried to escape, yet. Thank you."

"I can't...i dunno where I am. I'm not very strong either." said Ranma quietly, "I wanna get outta here 'live. So all I can do is play nice."

"you'll get out of here, one day. I promise." the doctor said, and Ranma nodded gratefully.

The firing range has twenty 'stalls' running along the length of it, with a few guards in it already. They pause and watch the redheaded cyborg as she walks down to the middle range and waits, feeling awkward. The guards aren't hiding their curiousity as they watch her.

The doctor returns with a large case and lays it down in front of ranma.

"Open it" she grins

Ranma reached down and popped the latch and flipped the case open.

Inside was two large, bulky-looking guns. Pistols to be exact.

"Umm..kay?" Ranma asked, completely ruining the moment.

"UGH! SCAN THEM!" the irritated doctor snapped.

Ranma shrugged and glanced at them, her ARGUS glowing.

"ummm...lesse...Enforcer pistols, custom sidearm for the RECON model, that'd be me I'm guessin'. Uses umm..." Ranma cross-refferenced the information.

"Fifty calibur sniper rifle rounds with explodin' tips. SMART-linked an' with single fire an' three-round burst fire options.

Kay, so?"

The other guards stared slowly at Ranma, then the large pistols.

"Just...pick one of them up, I'll explain." the doctor was very disappointed, she wanted Ranma to be excited, but alas the redhead had no appreciation for the difficulty it had been to craft these guns, or the special loading mechanism to be loaded into both her arms.

Ranma picked the sleek black gun up. the guards have stopped firing alltogether, and all looked at them carefully.

"the gun's grip has a small nub in the bottom, you should've felt it click into your wrist when you picked it up, right?"

Ranma nodded.

"That's your SMART link. It's a targetting camera mounted on the bottom of the pistol. In your vision you should see a small wordbox that popped up in your upper right corner of your vision. It should say 'SMART', right?"

agian, Ranma nodded.

"Select ti by looking at it and blinking"

there was a beep and ranma gasped.

"what should've happened is-"

"some kinda small screen with umm...what?"

"the camera's view." Karasu explained. "That should be in the left of your vision. This is your SMART link. It lets you see out of the camera, complete with crosshairs.

Go ahead and fire at a target down range."

Ranma turned and aimed.

"Remember, don't pull the trigger: squeeze it."

Ranma pulled the trigger isntead and stumbled as a canon-like blast filled the room.

The target at the end of the room lost a quarter of the arm.

"no...patience. Aim and fire, squeeze it slowly, brace your arm. " Ranma nodded and tooka slow breath and tried again.

This time, the round hit the chest, blasting out msot of the center of the target.

"Good...good. I'll be back later." She showed ranma the clips scattered across the box, "Keep shooting"

Ranma took a stance, and aimed.

"squeeze...not pull..."

**End of Part 6**

**Author's Rant: **mmmm...people keep telling me to check out Saikyano or wtv it's called. I did actually but i felt the explanations provided for the cybernetics were kinda weak. Anyways, moving on.

More characters ARE going to be cyberized. Some you may expect, others you will not. Also? I dislike Akane, but I'm NOT going to demonize her or turn her into some hilarious clownshoes parody of her character. Is she a bitch? Yes. Does she have anger problems? Yes. Is she a closet lesbian? Probably (not that there's anything wrong with that. ) Would she kill Ranma and go psychotic into a blind rage of posession over her?

Are you MENTAL! Akane is a spoiled brat with severe anger control problems. But she's not this crazed monster, she doesn't view Ranma as her posession, and she has a very passive-aggressive relationshpi with Ranma.

Moving along, someone suggested I try brainstorming, which isn't a bad idea. But it'd be nice to have someone to bounce a few ideas off of...

Lastly, if you have any songs that are kindof robotic-themed or about cyborgs or stuff like that, please let me know. **I already know about 'RISE' by Origa and 'INNER UNIVERSE' and I will be using them. Please do not suggest those ones to me!**

anyways. THAT IS ALL! KITTY SIGNING OUT!


	7. Join us or Die

**Authors Note: **

1) Okay, well here is where we start running into my lack of knowledge about firearms, and the general idea of how they work. I'm a gamer-girl, I play lots of video games, I play lots of shooters, I know the general gist behind most weapons. But what I'm not is a military engineer, nor am I a robotics scientist, indeed I'm not a scientist of any variety or form. So the science behind this whole goddamn thing is going to be so soft you could spread it on a baguette. Also, the weapons are going to be a result of my imagination, I have friends who have a better handle on this who will be helping to make sure that I don't go creative horrible monstrosities or start contradicting myself, but if anyone has any real working knowledge (not gaming knowledge) of firearms, ammunition and ergonomics please contact me, the help will be greatly appreciated.

2) Updates. I have no update schedule, I have no time I will absolutely assuredly update. I am terrible with deadlines, I am easily distracted, I am a lazy storyteller. I will update when I feel like it, though I will try to keep it from going onto a month. More or less, i will update when I have a chance or when I feel like sitting down in a chair and ignoring all other distracrtions and pounding out a chapter. Please be patient.

3) Seriously guys? Review, writers feed on them, we NEED reviews. It takes 3 seconds to write something.

4) I am aware of the innacuracies about the kettle, and the Jusendo and Herb arc I have portrayed in this story. I was originally inexperienced with the arc and misunderstood things. Whiel I am now far more experienced, there is no way for me to go back and undo it without changing large parts of the chapters. Therefor, consider this a divergence from where Herb first was introduced. The kettle is litterally a magical kettle instead of a stone formation, and Jusendo is in China. I KNOW THIS TICKS SOME OF YOU OFF. But in the long run, it's a minor thing at best.

5) Fluttershy is best Tree.

**Suggested Listening Music: **Carnival of Rust [Poets of the Fall]

**The Weapon**

**A Ranma 1/2 fanfic by**

**Dianna "chinangel" Machen **

"I hate it."

The doctor lifted her eyebrow curiously.

"What's wrong with it?" she examined the pistols as ranma drank some water from a bottle, leaning against the wall in her lab.

"It's...bulky. It's not the whole 'gun' thing, it's the fact htat it's so..soo..." data crossed Ranma's blue eyes, "Unweildly."

The doctor felt her feelings get hurt a little and she looked the prototype weapons over carefully.

The guns had a weighted grip with no iron sights, as cyborgs have built-in targetting programs making physical sights largely obsolete, with a thick, long slide along the top. The bottom of the gun, in front of the trigger held the clip which carried 12 rounds double-stacked, then there was the bulky SMART targetting computer under the barrel.

Frustrated, she looked back at the redheaded cyborg.

"Look at the thing, it's enormous. I can't use that thing! It's too bulky, it takes too long to swing around, it's clip is tiny, and it's just-"

"I get it!" Karasu snapped back and the redhead sipped her water.

"I...I get it. You're right." she shakes her head.

"Damnitt...it's just a concept gun."

she looked at the redhead who looked back at her.

"Well...I was thinking." Ranma said after a momen, crossing her metallic arms, "Why not give me a suped-up dessert eagle?"

"mmmm?" The Doctor was impressed that Ranma had been accessing her neurel network, and the company network on her own initiative.

"Continue..."

"well, desert eagles are advanced, high-powered pistols. Fifty calibur rounds an' stuff. But they've been kinda scaled back to compensate what humans can take."

she finished her water off as the doctor pivoted in her desk chair towards her.

"So, why not just take off all the limitations that hold the gun back, an' make it a really powerful pair-a-guns for me?"

Karasu was deeply amused and smiled at her creation.

"Well, well, someone's been researching."

"well you amde really shitty handguns."

"I'm a cyber physician, not a weapon engineer." she reminded.

The smaller girl shrugged a little

"Then get a weapon's engineer."

"you mouthy little bitch!" Karasu laughed at the forward bluntness of the redhead.

"Hey, you made me." she tossed her bottle at the doctor who caught it, "Don't criticize your own work."

The doctor stared at the redhead. Then began to snicker, chuckle and then outright laugh as Ranma grinned in a cheeky way.

It wasn't easy living here, and Ranma knew she had more than enough justification to have a temper tantrum. But cooperating had given her a few luxuries she had come to be fond of: like a tv, access to the gym to train, a shower, fresh clothes every day, hot meals, privacy away from the guards (though not the countless camera's). All-in-all, the doctor was trying to reward her for being cooperative, trying to make the former human as comfortable as Akuyo would let her.

Twice a week, she was allowed to train with Rei and her team. She found herself with a growing respect for the human security officer. Rei commanded the respect of a team, who obeyed her without back talk. She had experience, and a rather attractive body.

Ranma mentally slapped herself for that one, and re-focused on the time at hand.

"So...can you get me those?" she asked after the doctor's chuckling died down.

"Yeah, probably. You just keep working on your accuracy in the firing range, and keep training in group tactics with Rei. I'll get you your guns, and a few new upgrades."

Ranma nodded. She was about to ask another question when the door opened and her mouth formed an 'o' of shock.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE!"

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Jusendo was a MESS, the mountain face was blasted off, and there was debris everywhere. THe kettle was GONE, destroyed, that was a fact. Though there were probably other samples and cures elsewhere, one of the more known and convenient ones had been destroyed by the musk prince.

The Nerimians sifted through the debris slowly, under the watchful eye of Cologne, who was serious and stern, perched upon her taff while ancient but experienced eyes scanned the rubble.

"BAKUSAI TENKETSU!" occasionally rang out and ryouga cleared away a rather large section of debris, as they dug for...something. Anything. Any kind of clue as to what happened.

They needn't wait all that long.

"I GOT SOMETHING! I GOT SOMEONE!" shouted akane as she hoisted a boulder up.

The others crowded around eagerly, seeing a pale hand sticking up amongst the rubble. It was scraped and covered in dried blood.

"RANMA!" yelled Ryouga, recognizing the small, delicate fist that had collided with his head on so many an occasion. Reachiung down he gripped the rocks around it and heaved...and stumbled back. Horrified.

The arm was alone. BLoody...beginning to rot. A sleeve of her trademark red shirt hung off the shoulder joint like a grim flag.

Akane turned away and wretched while horrified and saddened expressions dotted the face of everyone else.

"We have to keep digging." Ryouga said after a moment, "Ranma could be burried under here, and I'm not going to let that jerk die unless *I* am the one who kills him!"

"RYOUGA!" screamed akane, her eyes wet, "THAT'S A HORRIBLE THING! THAT..THAT'S...YOU JERK!" and with a mighty punch, Akane slugged the fanged boy in the chin, sending him stumbling down the side of the mountain.

Ukyo yelled and looked over the side, to see ryouga bounce into a cavern...saved by luck.

"AKANE!" she yelled, "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!"

Akane stared at her hand, and where Ryouga had been, then crumped and began to sob.

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It had hurt..and he hadn't expected the punch. He always said stuff like that to his rival, they always made fun of eachother. So why...it wasn't like Ranma was dead or nothing. Just unconcious. The amazons probably had some magical arm do-hicky to put him back together...

Ryouga slowly got up and looked around the cavern. He could see above him where he made his entrance, but it was a bit too high to get out of.

"Akane..I'm sorry Akane!" he yelled, but he heard nothing in return. Perhaps it's fate...perhaps it's the gods laughing at him. Or maybe...they're taking pity on him. But whatever the reason, the lost boy had become so focused on his depression, and the fact that he had made Akane mad at him, that he forgot about his breaking point, and the ease it would be to simply blow a whole in the wall and climb out.

Instead...he wandered deeper and deeper into the cave.

"Damn you Ranma, this is all your fault." he muttered to himself without conviction, all the while staring at his feet.

"I know that you did this..right? I mean if you hadn't gone off and ...an..and gotten lost and hurt. None of this wouldn't have happenead. You should've caught the kettle you moron!" he hissed to himself, "Then we all coulda beaten the shit outta Herb an' gone home. "

He trudged along, failing ot notice the area around him changing.

"You idiot...you made Akane cry, an' you've scared everyone. You selfish-"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HER

Ryouga's head snapped up and finally took stock of his location.

It was some kind of laboratory, with metal walls and banks of computers running some kind of program. Sticky notes covered them, and there were blackboards with diagrams that hurt his head to try and figure out. There were skeletons next to firearms, and a full on medical skeleton with a pair of missile batteries attached to it.

But that pailed in comparison to the redhead glaring at him, fists planted on her hips.

"RANMA! YOU BASTARD!" ryouga punched her in the face and she stumbled.

"HOW DARE YOU MAKE US SCARED THAT YOU WERE-WERE-" his rant cut off as she looked back at him. Even Ryouga and his infamous anger notices how much his hand hurts from punching her in the face, and the non-plussed look.

Then, as he massages his palm, his eyes start drinking in her form. Her curves, her eyes, her...metal "L"'s on her cheeks...her...metal..triangle...on..the...forehead?

"...Ranma?" he asks

"..." Ranma looks at him with pity, and anger.

But before she can act, the door opens and guards burst in aiming at Ryouga.

"WHA-?"

"NO!" The doctor stands, "You're going to shoot one of my subjects?"

The guards freeze and look at Ryouga, while Ranma picks up on the situation.

"Ryouga...he's gonna become like me. He's a volunteer though" she states quickly, and the doctor nods.

"He was just..late getting here."

"wha-volunnnnnnnnnnnnnngnnnnnnn!" he grimaces as Ranma steps on his fingers.

"...i still ahve to report this to chief of security Mitsuhito." one lowers his gun a little.

"Fine fine," Karasu waves dismissively, while the others remain, and the leader goes on his radio.

"what is going on?" Ryouga hisses at Ranma as the redhead kneels.

"Shush, you're nto supposed to be here," she whispers back, examining his fingers, bruised...but that's a good thing. it means her control is getting better.

"They'll kill you if you don't play along. Just pretend to be a test subject."

"Test subject...wait...become like you?" he looks at her, then her..metal...arms...

"Oh god ranma...what have they done to you?"

"...I...don't know how to answer that..."

the door opens again, and this time a woman enters, dressed in some kind of black uniform, with a blue arrow on her shoulder and a holster at her hip.

"Doctor? We need to talk...now."

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"akane..." Kasumi approached the youngest tendo.

it was late at night, they were camping at the base of Jusendo, to continue their search in the morning. Ryouga had vanished and they didn't expect him to re-appear for a few weeks, at best.

Akane was still in shock from punching Ryouga, afraid of her own strength. Seeing the arm of Ranma had been terrifying for everyone involved.

"Kasumi..." she motioned to the lawn chair next to her, and the taller brunette took a seat,

"You okay little sister?"

"no." she shook her head miserably.

"Ranma's arm..I...stupid Ryouga!" she covers her eyes and starts sobbing.

"why did he haveta say something like that? R-Ranma's NOT dead!" she sobs. "J-Just hurt. he needs us to save him somewhere! He's NOT under those rocks!"

"shhh...shh..." kasumi rocks her slowly, head pulled into hte chest of the elder sister.

"Ranma will be alright Akane, I promise. We just need to find her...find him." she corrects. Akane, in her state, missed the slip of the tongue.

But in her heart, Kasumi was worried. Ranma never got hurt this bad, and she knew from her medical training with Tofu that anyone who WAS hurt this bad would need a doctor, really badly, or they WOULD die.

So she hoped that Ranma was somewhere getting medicine...but where? With these sky people? What did they want with Ranma? WHo were they? They were just a computer company right? Like Dell or Microsoft, why would they be interested in Jusenkyo? Why the Amazons or the other people who lived there.

These questions gnawed at the eldest Tendo sister as her sister cried herself to sleep in her arms.

So many questions, and not nearly enough answers.

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"you have...ANOTHER test subject?" akuyo glared at the woman. Another reason she angered him: she was taller than him. It was emberassing to have to look up at her, even when they were sitting.

"yes. One equal to Subject Eight's potential."

"and why should I clear this? Why should I okay what is obviously some kind of ploy?"

"because you want results. You want hard results." the golden eyed doctor leaned in close

"This 'Hibiki' is the closet thing Subject Eight has to a rival. Matching in skill and determination. Stronger than Eight was but a bit slower. Hibki has one flaw that I can easily correct, making him perfect for the Cyborg Intiative program."

"you still haven't convinced me."

Okay she tried the carrot, now the stick.

"I'm still under-budget, and you gave me control over this project." she counters, "you invited me here, not the other way around. If you want a fully functioning cyborg program, accurately able to showcase the flexibility and potential of the upgrades and implants, I *NEED* Hibiki."

Akuyo glowered at the woman.

"...fine. You get the little shit, but if he steps ONE toe out of line, i'm tkaing him down and holding you PERSONALLY responsible for any financial loss, AM I CLEAR!"

she bit back a retort.

"Crystal."

"Good. Now go"

standing quickly, she marched out of the room, quietly seething at the smug, arrogant man.

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"doesn't any of it bother you?"

Ranma looked back at Ryouga, sitting in a simple cell, with two guards posted outside.

"...yeah...it does. I mean...my insides are all mixed up, my arms an' legs were ripped off an' now they're metal. I have metal stickin' outta my face, fake eyes an' teeth, and my bones all have metal on them.

It bothers me a lot 'youga. " She pulled her legs up to her chest and looked back at the cell door, and Ryouga looking back at her.

"I'm bein' taught guns' an' missiles an' stuff. They let me play video games so i can see hwo important guns are, an' show me news reports so i can see real-life damage from 'em. I'd be usin' the art ta kill people, not pretend ta kill 'em but ACTUALLY kill 'em."

this was the first time she sat down and actually talked about it. she coudlnt' talk to the doctor because Karasu woulnd't understand.

"why not run away?" Ryouga asks.

The guards stiffena little and watch the redhead with s uspicion.

"can't...they'd kill me. I'm really weak 'youga...but maybe one day they'll let me go. that'd be nice."

was...was ranma...acting?

The whole idea was ludicrous but he knew Ranma well enough to knwo that being coooped up in this place HAD to be driving her up the wall and over the ceiling. Ranma would NEVER give up...right?

She HAD to be acting, she had to be pretending.

But looking at her hunched over, metal hands clasped in front of her, and staring at the ground, two armed guards in front of him, he just didn't know what to think anymore

A door to the cells opened and that doctor walked in.

"Hibiki?" she said cooly, in that calm tone that makes you want to punch them in the teeth, just to rattle them.

"Im here to offer you a choice," she smiled in a melodramatic, bitter way, "Join the program, or you will be terminated immediately. Join us, or die"

**End of Part 7**

**Authors Rant:** . I feel like i should have more in here, yet i can't figure out what else to do! This chapter just wouldn't work for me, it felt like fiiiiiiiiiiillaaaaaaaaaaaa!

anyhow, so yeah, another update and again not pre-read. So tenses are probably all wrong and stuff.

and hey, playing AC For Answer helped with some of my ideas. But stay the **FUCK** away from that terrible AC5. it's sooooo much ass. Completely missing the point of the AC series in my humble opinion.

also if someone coudl help me write big battle scenes or give me instructions on it, that would be most appreciated.

anyhow, Dianna signing off.

TALLY HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!


	8. The Stranger in the Mirror

**Authors Note:** some people have voiced dislike over having multiple people become cyborgs and the method that they become them. well...I'm sorry. This was planned from day 1 that there would be more than one cyborg.

In case I haven't said so before, or if it isn't obvious, this story was somewhat inspired by **Sunshine Temple**'s **"The Return"** an excellent piece of work if you can get passed the 'Tom Clancy' feel of it. And how different the characters start acting. I highly recommend it as the author is quite gifted and skilled.

**Why has Ranma's Ki weakened or become...less?**

What do we scientifically know about Ki? Nothing or next to nothing. Ki is 'life force' and it is widely accepted that things like animals have ki, but plants, rocks or stone do not, as they're not conciously alive.

I used this as a springboard, seeing as Ranma was alive and had martial arts training so a lot of ki. But since she's been so heavily damaged, and a lot of her body has been replaced by machinery or 'upgraded', her ki would've sharply decreased. Machinery does not generate ki, because it is not alive. Ranma has very little ki left now, making her appear weak to anyone who can read it, and forcing her to rely on other means to fight.

**Ranma wouldn't accept firearms**

Really? Why not? Ranma's stance on weaponry is that it's a tool. In canon, we see Ranma resort to weaponry, train with weaponry and master weaponry. So what is a gun other than a different kind of weapon? In my opnion, Ranma would use a gun if it suited her. And it does.

**Ranma's guns wouldn't work!**  
I have stated before that i'm not a weapons technition. i know nothing about guns and firearms and i'm trying ot make this as realistic as possible but without any real knowledge of firearms i have nothing really to go on, if someone out there who IS knowledgeable about firearms wants to help me, then i'd welcome it and cite you as a source of my knowledge.

**You have lots of spelling mistakes or continuity errors**

I have no pre-readers my friend. my BF was going to do it but real life has otherwise pulled him into an evil and dark place. College. Therefor I have to try and catch my own errors.

**Suggested Listening Music: **A shot in the dark [Within Temptation]

**The Weapon**

**A Ranma 1/2 fanfic by**

**Dianna "chinangel" Machen **

"Are you going to watch?" Ryouga asked nervously. He was sitting on a medical table he had become quite familiar with. Since he had made his choice the doctor had been running him through test after test. She wanted to see how he fought, how he moved, she tested his body and gave him three physicals, as well as running tests that Ryouga had no comprehension of what they were for.

But now was the day...he hadn't eaten for a week and had only water to drink to clear his system. He was scared, but he'd never tell Saotome that.

"yup. I'm kinda curious to see what it's like."

"They never showed you your surgery?"

"I was pretty messed up." she explained, "my arms were pulped and my legs were crushed. I had lotsa fucked up organs and crushed bones, so they just kinda threw lotsa stuf finside me without really measurin'. I've spent the last few weeks being fine tuned. They changed my spine-"

"Your spine?"

"yup. they were gonna use my original one, but real nerves are much slower when ya compare 'em to my new one. It synchs up much better with ARGUS and my brain."

"ARGUS?"

"this." she tapped the metal triangle on her forehead, "it's a high-powered computer. Artificial Retina Guidance Upgrade System. It gives me a whole bunch of neat things I can do with my eyes."

"oh?" he was mildly intrigued, forgetting the anxiety at having his body changed.

"Yeah, they took my eyesw out an' put new ones in, ones that can..um..." he see's lines cross her eyes, "process visual data and transmit it back ta ARGUS which then gives me combat options"

Ryouga blinked.

"okay..what the hell is that?"

"what's what?"

"Your...eyes. You sometimes stop talking and these broken lines start to run across your eyes."

the redhead blushed.

"oh umm..that's ARGUS providing me with words to explain m'self. Ya see, I aint so good at talkin',"

"You don't say." he deadpanned, but it was lost on Ranma,

"yeah. An Argus lets me say things properly. If I dunno how ta say it, then it sends me data so I can try and say it properly. "

"I see..." Ryouga looked down at his hands. They wouldn't stop shaking, even if he clenched his fists.

Ranma glanced down at them too, her eyes enhancing his clenched yet trembling hands, and leaving the image in a window while sh elooked back at his face, seeing the sweat beading on his brow and his constant swallowing.

"Ya scared..."

"OF COURSE I'M SCARED!" Ryouga bellowed back.

"I...I...I don't want to be a-a-a-"

"A freak." she provided with quiet anger.

Ryouga scowled at her.

"Hey now just a-"

"Ya think I wanted this?" she gestured to her body, to the gleaming metal arms, the metal in her face, the metallic triangle, her somehow slightly larger breasts and wider hips.

"Ya think I wanted ANY of this! I DIDN'! I HAVEN'T SEE THE SUN IN WEEKS! I HAVE BEEN STUCK DOWN HERE EVERY DAY. BEIN' CHANGED AN' 'UPGRADED' AND 'ALTERED'. THEY RUN TESTS ON ME, AN-AN' TEACH ME HOW TA SHOOT GUNS TO KILL PEOPLE!

I DIDN' WANT ANY OF THIS!"

Ryouga thought he saw something shining in her eyes, but it may be because her eyes now have a special lens over them now to protect the more fragile camera and projection system behind the lens. 'Nearly indestructible' apparantly.

She stormed out of the doctor's office, leaving Ryouga dumbfounded.

Had Ranma been...crying?

The doctor returned some time later, interrupting Ryouga's introspection.

"it's time..." she says softly.

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(**Authors note:** I do NOT want to hear complaining about the 'medical innacuracey' of the scene i'm about to do. I do not care if it's innaccurate. I do not care if this wouldn't work. I do not care if this isn't how YOU see cyborgs working. I'm sorry if this seems mean-spirited or aggressive or bitchy, but I'm a little tired of people picking this fic apart. it's certaintly flawed but please, just try to enjoy yourself. I'm no Sunshine Temple here. )

Ryouga stripped, trying not to imagine the pretty gold-eyed woman watching him as he did so.

Then, he slowly laid down on the cold metal table and looked up at her.

"I'm afraid."

she gave him a tight smile.

"It will be over soon."

she pulled a surgical mask up, and put a different mask over his face, until he slowly closed his eyes.

they were divided into three teams, all directed by the doctor, a red-head watching from the observation room, metal hands clenched in worry.

One team began with teh amputation of the arms and legs, sealing the wounds with strange metallic caps at the shoulder and hips, but they had to do it slowly to avoid the mass loss of blood.

Another team, team 2, had his chest cavity open and were inserting some kind of large orb into his belly.

And team 3 were working on his skull. his brain was exposed and they were bringing over some kind of artificial skull with an orange fluid inside of it. they began by attaching it over the top of the skull where the brain was exposed, then moved on to removing the back of his skull, and replaced it with another metallic piece, and lastly they surgically lifted his face off and placed the front of the skull down.

The first team on the other hand were attaching the digital nerves to the new limbs, feeding them into surprisingly-delicate looking arms and legs, and slowly shifting the new limbs ever closer to their new homes in on the caps.

Team 2 then began to attach wide, convex disks to the side of the hips, locking them to the top of the legs, then they ran a few tests on a nearby console and nodded to eachother, apparantly pleased with the result.

seemingly satisfied with their work, and with the new metallic skeleton they had finished grafting over the original skeleton, they closed the chest cavity up. Then they put some kind of wide, oval-shaped covering on his chest and began to pour a skin-coloured fluid onto him.

The Poylmer would slowly replace his original skin, making it harder, more durable without losing any of the flexibility.

However, they stopped and removed the oval covering, revaling the area of his upper chest had been otherwise unnaffected. They covered the rest of Ryouga with some kind of plastic sheet, sealing it as best as they could to his skin, leaving only the area untouched by the fluid bared. 

Then, they paused surgery to dump some kind of..water? onto him! It drenched his skin, soaking in, and triggering hte curse at first, but they continued, unabbated, the body unshifting much, as the new skeletons and implants therein prevented the change.

Then the pig-furred skin began to return to its normal colour, human pink..and then the real changes began. Changes that made Ranma gape, and not even ARGUS could provide her with a reasonable explanation for why she was seeing what she did.

Apparantly pleased with the outcome, they stopped the water and removed the sheet, returning to their duties and pouring the polymer onto his chest proper.

They also began pouring the same skin-coloured polymer onto the skull while another team inserted blue eyes into the skull, and checked computers to make sure the artificial eyes were transmitting to the brain.

Of course, 3 areas on the skull were left uncovered: a metallic triangle at the top, and two metal rectangles that followed the contour of the cheekbone.

Then ryouga was turned over and they opened up the back,a nd examined the spine.

They began by gently removing the brain stem from the spinal column and then the spinal column itself.

they returned with a metallic brace instead and inserted it where the spinal columne was and properly attached the ribcage to it and fed the nerve endings into the sides, as well as pulling the delicate stem fibres down into the top of the brace. then all three teams went to work on gently revealing the nerve tissue itself from each fibre and capping it with a small yellow digital translator, a process that took two hours to complete.

But, once done, they were locked into a cup-shaped device that was then attached to the top of the spinal brace.

And then Finally...finally after hours and hours and hours of intense surgery, ryouga's new artificial spine was brought out. a simple, but highly specialized cable that was pushed into the brace, and each of the nerves was hooked into the side, making the body jerk and shift as it happened. then the top of the spine was pushed into the 'nerve cup' at the top, hooking hte spine directly into the artificial skull.

This done, a metallic scaled plate was brought over and attached over top of the spine, covering it and sealing it, where the artificial skin was then placed.

It was done.

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"Someone approaches." the elderly woman frowned, feeling the interlopers before she saw them.

It was night on the mountain, and the nerimians had gathered near a fire to take a break from digging.

"Is it Ryouga?" Akane asked hopefully from where she was huddled under Kasumi's arms and a blanket draped over them both.

"no..." she stood, so did Mousse, Shampoo and Ukyo, gripping their weapons.

A man dressed in a rather plain suit, and with a blue pin on his lapel, approached them. The pin was of a circle with an arrow pointing upwards.

"Excuse me," he said in a pleasantly confused voice. He was a typical corporate type: clean cut, dark haired and well shaven. Utterly forgettable.

"What are you doing up here?"

"we look for Shampoo Husband yes?" snapped the amazon.

"I'm sorry..Miss?" he asked.

"Xian Pu!"

"SHampoo...well excuse me Miss umm..Shampoo, but this area is off-limits. We are performing our own investigations here and you're trespassing."

"Ranma-honey may have been burried under here, and y'all aint tellin' me where I can an' can't go until I find him!"

the man smiled but it was mildly strained.

"This is a private investigation," he repeated, "And this isn't up for discussion. Please, I must ask that you leave by noon tomorrow?"

"And if we don't!" yelled Akane, feeling rebellious.

"then we won't ask so nicely."

Unconcerned with the snarling, burning, hateful glares on him, he turned to leave.

"We are aware of the Amazons business in Japan, and are content to allow you to continue unabatted...so long as they remember where not to stick their hands." and with that parting jab, he began the descent.

"Shampoo kill" whispered the enraged girl and Mousse nodded his agreement.

"No...not right now. We lack the manpower to confront then for the moment...we will have to leave...for the moment." said Cologne, drawing a whine from Shampoo.

"but you will see just how long the arm of the Amazons are," thought the old woman, "I guarantee it"

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"easy...easy does it...slowly...sloooooooowly..." Ranma's voice filled Ryouga's ears.

Ryouga's eyes opened to a spray of numbers that he understood to be his boot-up sequence, telling him that, despite a few hiccups, he had powered up nicely.

"No..don't try to talk, just..sit up" her metal arms reached down and grabbed his, making an odd sensation of feeling her metal hands through his metal hands. HIs surprisingly thin hands.

She pulled him upwards then stopped his shoulder with her palm.

"Careful. Your center-of-gravity is all fucked up now, you need to be careful...come on...baby steps."

She held his wrists, walking backwards in front of him, holding his wrists.

"Come on...come on..slowly...slowly..good..GOOD!" she beamed happily. Walking had become hard..his body acting sluggish, like he had just woken up from a long sleep.

"I know you want to see yourself. Just...just...here." she helped him slowly sit in a chair.

Ryouga took slow breaths.

"Ranma i wa..!" he gasped and grabbed his throat. THis voice..this wasn' t his voice! What happened!

"Ranma they messed up they!" looking down he froze at what he saw.

"Ryouga..." Ranma picked up a mirror.

"I'm sorry Ryouga..." she held it up for him to see.

"They made you a girl."

**End Part 8**

**Authors Rant: **MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA! oh god! I wonder how many of you are pissed at me! Okay..okay..now...practical question.

the surrgery scene. What did you think of it? Bear in mind that i had to make up the cyberization surgery on my own, and really had to think very hard on it. I am still not too pleased with it, as I wanted more detail but i didn't want to confuse anyone and i dind't want the scene to drag out.

I kept going back and back adn back again to examine it and re-read it and re-edit it.

Anyways, do you want to see more of these pseudo-medical scenes that show the inner workings and the creation of a cyborg? Do you want the details on how i see their pieces fitting together and how it all works?

I would like to know!

anyways!

Read and Review and that fun stuff.


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